Of Thieves and Leeches
by Jamie Hook
Summary: Obviously, picking the pocket of the Prince of Thieves was a bad idea. Obviously, taking the girl who tried to steal from back to New York was an even worse idea. And obviously, trying to take over the minds of two powerful mutants is just stupid.Romy FIN
1. Chapter 1

Pick pocketing was an art, a rare addiction that was easy to learn but nearly impossible to perfect.

Remy LeBeau had perfected it. In fact, he was the man that made it an art. However, the day he first accidentally 'bumped' into his fellow man, relieving him of his more valuable items, he did not expect it to come back and bite him in the ass.

Repeatedly.

First, was when he had reached his little hands into the pocket of one Jean Luc LeBeau.

Bad move.

True, he had gotten a family out of it, one that accepted him for what he was. But, he had also gotten a whole lot of things he had not been expecting. Thieves, assassins, murder, crazy scientist who wanted to cut him open to see what made him tick, stuff like that.

And now again, as he watched a feminine figure retreating as she took off into the crowds.

"Bitch." He breathed, partly with irritation, but mostly with amusement as he patted down his now empty pockets. That was funny. Someone had picked the pocket of the Prince of Thieves. That was really funny.

Of course, it was going to be a little less funny when he hunted down the girl who had swiped it and snatched it back. That was _his_wallet, dammit, and like hell he was going to let _his_wallet cavort with people who were not _him._

He started to walk through the crowds, hunting for details of the girl that would help him single her out. He couldn't remember much about her, only the white streak in her otherwise dark brown hair.

_Now, now Remy,_that little voice inside his head that other people referred to as their 'conscience.' Remy didn't really care for his 'conscience' and ignored it a good portion of the time. Sometimes it was able to worm its way into the forefront of his thoughts. He did his best to ignore it then too. _What would be the point of pursuing this girl? You saw her, she was skin and bones. She needs it more than you do. Besides, this is a bad idea._

That same voice had interrupted him once before in a slightly similar situation. And that was the time his tiny fingers were closing in on the much larger and well funded pocket of Jean Luc LeBeau and it was screaming at him '_BAD IDEA!'_

_Hush,_he commanded this '_conscience'_as he wound his way in between people walking down the dirty city streets.

_What's the worst that could happen?_

* * *

Rogue felt terrible about stealing that man's money, she really did, but as she made her way through the crowds feeling terrible was the last thing on her mid. She was starving. She was sick. She was tired. She was cold. She needed to go 'home'. It had taken about three months for it to fully sink in but she needed to go back to The Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. It sounded like a prison. She needed to go home, she needed people who understood her, and she needed _Logan._

Logan. The only man - no, the only _person-_who would go near her without flinching, without hesitating. She needed that. She needed someone not to be afraid of her.

A thing she was most definitely had not been getting during her year of living in Baltimore.

She quickly leafed through the wallet she had lifted off of that man and was immediately impressed by the amount of money that had been stuffed inside. Dreams do come true. She had enough to get a ride and some food. Fan-_tas_-tic.

She gotten her newly acquired skills at thievery had come from a man who had obviously thought that she was just to cute to keep his hands off of.

Bastard.

She was forced to wonder again why she had come out there. It was a bad idea. She liked being in cities, there was always people around her, people who didn't know her, people who didn't judge her. She got to see what it was like to be normal. 'See' being the operative word.

She sighed sadly, pocketing the wallet she had lifted. Odd. There wasn't anything in the wallet except for the cash, no ID, no cards. Nothing.

Weird, but not the weirdest thing that could happen, Rogue just tried to keep her thoughts on things she was going to be able to have soon as she made a slight detour in her trip to the metro to get some food.

A weird feeling slivered up her spine and she turned suddenly, looking back over the path she had just carved through the crowd. Was someone following her? She studied the faces in the crowd for a few moments until, satisfied that she was just losing her mind; she turned back on the track of food.

She slipped into a small corner shop and picked up a small cup of soup that nearly burned her fingers through the thin cardboard container and her gloves.

"Ow!" She hissed, shaking her hand in pain.

The man behind the counter gave her an odd look. She bowed her chin down to her chest and silently slipped over some bills to pay for the soup and then took the cup gingerly by the edges as she slunk out of the shop without even picking up her change.

She sat outside on a bench, close to the jellyfish filled water (Really, _jellyfish.)_and huddled closely to the warmth of the soup as she looked around. Couples holding hands, kissing, hugging, mothers and babies, sisters teasing each other, families touring the city. It hurt a little bit to know she would never have any of those things.

She shook herself and pointedly turned her attention back to the hot soup.

The weird feeling pricked at the back of her neck a second time. She turned around quickly again, looking around wildly behind her. Why did it feel like someone was following her?

A few a few moments of intense scrutiny of the world around her, Rogue shrugged warily and turned back to face forward slowly.

"Hello, _chere."_

She screamed, falling off the bench and spilling scalding soup all over herself. "Owowfucityow!" She wailed, shedding her jacket and peeling off the shirt that was covered in the scorching liquid, remaining only in her tank top and elbow length gloves. "What did ya do that for?" She said, finally looking up at the man.

She felt the blood drain from her face.

_I am so dead._

It was the man with the wallet she had stolen.

Remy didn't know what to make of the girl, especially now that a good percentage of her clothing was missing. Everything from the fire in her eyes to the drawl in her accent told him to stay away.

_Remy, Remy, Remy._That damn irritating voice sounded in his head again. _Leave the girl alone. You're playing with fire._

"Sorry, _chere_, didn' mean to hurt ya'." He fully ignored the voice. The girl didn't move from her spot, eyes wide with terror.

_Did my glasses slip?_He wondered idly, checking to make sure his sunglasses were still in place.

"I-I'm s-sorry." The girl stuttered, suddenly fumbling about her clothes, rooting through pockets like her life depended on it. "I s-shouldn't have taken it." She checked all of her pockets and he saw her face grow whiter as she looked back up at him. "I mustuv d-dropped it."

"No, ya didn't," Remy held up the wallet he had smoothly taken back. He leaned back into the bench, stretching out his legs, and toying around with a deck of cards.

The girl was actually kind of pretty. To thin, certainly, but her body had the memory of curves that would probably return when she was healthy again, and he didn't need to be a doctor to see that she wasn't healthy. But, despite the paleness of her skin, the dark purple splotches under her eyes, and the weakness of her body, her clear green eyes signaled boundless vigor. At the same time she radiated strength and frailty. What an odd combination. Admittedly, it intrigued Remy more than a simple pickpocket should have.

Rogue looked up at the man. She knew she wouldn't be able to take him in a fight. Even with all of her training as an X-man, it only worked if she was well enough to move. She hadn't eaten a solid meal in a week, she hadn't slept in three days, she hadn't stopped running since she had taken off. She was _tired._ And now, when she was finally ready to go home, she made a mistake. What was that about dreams coming true?

Immediately after stripping off her scalding clothes she had tried to find a bare patch of skin on him- because, like hell she was going down without a fight. He was wearing a trench coat that brushed his heels when he was standing; covering up a good percentage of his body, which for all she could tell was in great shape.

Awesome… he could totally win in said fight she would not be going down without… His hands were mostly covered by fingerless gloves, which was odd because of the cold weather. His face was uncovered save the pair of mirrored sunglasses that were mostly trapped underneath his mop of auburn hair and the stubble that had taken residence on his strong jaw.

"So," She said after a moments silence. "Are you gon' beat me up? Give me a speech? Kill me?"

"I'd settle fo' lookin' at you a little longer, chere." He winked at her. She couldn't see his eyes, but the message got across all the same. For the second time since he had walked into her life, sat on her park bench, and made her dump an entire cup of hot soup on herself, she was stunned speechless.

"Aren't you mad?" She asked after regaining her composure.

"Not really," He shrugged. "I just thought it was funny."

Rogue started to see hope. Funny was good, funny made sure you weren't beat up and left for dead in frikkin Baltimore.

"I have to go." She stated, not bothering to pick up her jacket or shirt before trying to bolt. It would have worked if she hadn't been taken by a coughing fit.

Remy saw her try and run for it, only to be taken by her lack of health. Before he could stop himself, his damn conscience took revenge for being ignored by forcing him to stand and go over to her.

"You okay, _chere_?" He asked, putting a tentative hand on her back.

"Don't touch me!" She stumbled back to the ground, scrambling to get away from him.

Remy felt his row furrow wth concern. Was she reacting like this because she had been abused? Or worse? Remy bristled at the thought of anyone touching that girl with ill intent.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," He tried to sooth her.

"It's not me I'm worried about," She muttered bitterly, almost too quietly for him to hear.

After a few moments of silence he decided to actually prove his worth at something and bent over to help her.

His sunglasses clattered to the ground.

He couldn't help being hurt by her wide eyed expression when she saw his eyes. He stealthily retrieved the glasses and replaced them on his face.

"Sorry 'bout that." He said sullenly, the thought of his demon eyes, red on black, made his own stomach churn, he couldn't imagine what they did to other people.

"I thought they were kinda' pretty." The girl said sheepishly.

The man looked at her funny. Rogue thought his eyes were gorgeous.

_So, he's a mutant._She thought rather thoughtfully if she did say so herself.

"Are you alright?" Remy ignored her last words, extremely confused by them. Damn that bastard conscience, he should have walked away when he had the chance.

"Yeah," Rogue set her jaw, trying to look tough, an image marred by her shivering. "I'm just trying to get home."

"Well, where is home, _chere_?" Remy grinned, regaining some of him charm. "I'll walk y' there."

"Westchester, New York." She said bluntly. "A little far to walk."

Remy contemplated this for a moment. He was at loath to leave this girl to her own self destructiveness, it would be a shame to see a pair of green eyes like that go to waste. His business (_if that was what you could call it)_was already done in Baltimore, what would it hurt to take a quick detour to New York before retuning to New Orleans?

"Nonsense," Remy winked at her again. "I, for one, could use the exercise."

"But- what?- I - what?" Rogue spluttered. "You don't even know me!" That hadn't been the answer she had been expecting. "I don't even know you!"

"Remy LeBeau," He bowed, tipping his imaginary hat. "At y'r service."

"But… I tried to steal something from you! Shouldn't you be… I dunno… suspicious of me? I'm a thief!" She exclaimed.

"A really bad one, at that." Remy laughed at her response.

"But…" her eyes grew wider as she tried to look for another excuse, but lapsed into another coughing fit before she could come up with anything.

"_Chere,"_His tone was admonishing as he put hit coat over her shoulders. "It's rude not to introduce yourself."

"Rogue." She grumbled.

"Rogue?" He wrinkled his nose. "What kind of a name is Rogue?" It suited her, but still.

"It's my mutant name." She mumbled.

Remy was stunned for a moment. Not many people caught him off guard, but this Rogue girl with the white stripe in her hair and the fire in her eyes was making a habit of it.

_Don't you dare use that girl, Remy LeBeau._His conscience sniffed.

_Goddammit! Shut up!_

_

* * *

(Hook) So, whaddya think? (I HAVE A PLAN FOR THIS ONE!) ((it's a new thing for me))_


	2. Chapter 2

Logan paced around warily. Why was he here? Jean was gone, the Professor was gone, the kid was gone. Why had he felt the need to return to this place?

Other than to kick Bobby Drake's ass, that is.

He had called the mansion to check on Rogue a while back, just make sure she was still strong and to tell her that he was heading back for a more permanent visit.

"Logan?" Ororo Munroe, better known as Storm, the new headmistress of the Xavier Institute since the passing of Xavier, had answered.

"Hey," He smiled, leaning against the walls of the phone booth in Canada. "Put the kid on, I got news."

Storm hesitated.

"'Ro?" Logan's smile started to fade.

"Rogue's gone, Logan." Storm explained. "She caught Bobby and Kitty together and she took off. We haven't heard from her for three months." Bobby was Rogue's boyfriend, one of two people she trusted enough to let them touch her. The other was Logan.

Silence.

"Logan?"

"I'm gonna kill him."

He disconnected.

Storm had secretly been terrified that he would _actually kill Bobby._

The day that Logan stomped back into the Institute, Bobby had just happened to be walking by. The boy went white.

"Your ass is mine, bub." Wolverine growled.

Bobby took off at a sprint.

Logan had searched for Rogue for days after that, calling upon his feral instincts to lead the way, but the trail went cold. He was three months too late.

Now he stayed at the Institute in the more permanent position of Danger Room Instructor in hopes that if he stayed around long enough she would came back and he'd have something that resembled a family again.

He was starting to lose hope that'd he would ever get his 'kid' back.

Then the phone rang.

"Uh… Mr. Logan…" Kitty said tentatively, being completely and utterly terrified of him since the whole 'You're lucky I'm above killing teenage girls' fiasco. "Phone for you."

He snatched the portable out of her hand in the hopes that she would disappear quickly and drew the cigar out of his mouth before putting the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Logan!" A southern accent choked back a sob of joy.

"Rogue?" Her voice affected him similarly to what he thought a sledge hammer to the temple might.

_

* * *

_

Remy glanced at the woman he had half dragged down to the bus station.

"Calm down." He snipped at her as she crossed her arms over her chest and blew a bit of white hair out of her eyes.

"I could have gone by myself; I don't need to be escorted by you." Rogue snarled.

"_Chere,_" Remy smirked the knowing smirk of a man who knew he was about to win an argument. "You spent my stolen money on grossly overpriced soup. You owe me something." He winked and let her mind wander on what that _something_could be.

"And," She harrumphed. "If you had let the money stay stolen, I could be making this trip myself." Obviously the conversation they were having was pretty damn interesting and Remy was aware of s good number of people listening in.

Not that he cared, he liked an audience.

"Oh please, you're a horrible thief. I'm doing society a favor by hunting you down and making sure you find yourself with respectable people." He scoffed, laughing on the inside at the irony of Remy LeBeau making sure anyone found a place among _respectable_people.

"What's your mutation?" Rogue asked abruptly. The eavesdroppers very quickly found other things to occupy their interests and made sure that they gave the two southern strangers their space.

Remy smirked at her, turning on the charm trying to make sure that she didn't catch on that he was only telling her the half truth, not disclosing _all_of his powers. "I make things go boom."

"That's hardly specific." She unconsciously leaned forward towards him.

Quick as lightning, he snatched a button off of her jacket. She flinched back slightly from his sudden closeness, but the panic faded as she watched with amazement as the button started to glow a light scarlet. He flicked it away and the button dissipated into nonexistence with a small _crack._

"They get more deadly." He assured her. "What's yours?"

Through his empathy he felt the severe depression that settled itself on her.

_Remy Etienne LeBeau!_His conscience barked. _You fix that RIGHT. NOW._

Were other people's consciences this mean?

"Is there anyone ya' need to call to tell you're coming?" He asked gently, intentionally changing the subject.

She looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "I guess I should call Bobby an' 'Ro…"

"Who's Bobby?" He tried to ask nonchalantly as he forked over his phone.

"My goodness Mr. LeBeau," Rogue gave him a devilish grin paired with a spark in her green eyes and he felt her depression fade. "Is that a hint of jealousy I'm detecting?"

"Ridiculous," Remy grinned at her quip. "Jealousy is for men who know they don't stand a chance."

Rogue snatched the compact cell phone out of his hand with an eye roll, tapping in the number quickly so that she wouldn't loose her nerve in contacting them. Remy was not-so-subtly listening in.

"Hello, you've reached-." Someone on the other side of the line said lazily until Rogue interrupted them.

"Kitty." She growled.

Kitty screamed.

"OmigodRogueisthatyou?"

"Yes it's me." Rogue snarled. "Put on someone who cares."

"OH! Itotallyknowsomeonewhocares!" Kitty screeched, completely ignoring Rogue's terseness. Shuffling and a few unrecognizable words later, the phone connected to the one Rogue was holding switched ownership.

"Hello?" A new voice, distinctly male, asked.

Rogue's expression changed from one of mortification to something close to elation.

"Logan!" She jumped up and down with excitement and Remy had to cough to cover up his laugh.

"Rogue?" Logan sounded stunned.

"What are you doing there? When did you get back? I wouldn't have left if I'd known _and_ _Oh. My. God_. Is Bobby still alive?" She said in a blur.

Logan chuckled. "I live here, I got here too late, and yes, unfortunately the little ice cube is still in the realm of the living."

"Oh good." Rogue sighed. "Logan, it wasn't his fault."

"Where are you, kid?" He asked, ignoring her statement.

"Uh…" Rogue hesitated.

"Rogue…" Logan's voice held a warning tone.

"I'm in Baltimore," She said and then quickly added. "But it's okay, I'm coming home."

"Baltimore?" Logan said distastefully.

"I know, right." Rogue chuckled, which quickly turned into a coughing fit.

"Y' okay, _chere?"_Remy asked.

"Who was that?" Logan snarled, quickly followed by, "Are you alright? You sound like you have something in your lungs. I could come get you-."

"No, I'm fine." She said sternly to both men.

"You didn't answer my other question-." Logan started.

"Oh, no *_rsssshhhh*_We're _*rshhhhhhhhhhhh*_up _*rsssssh*_go. Talk to ya' _*rssssssssssshhhhhhhhh*"_ Rogue faked static and then quickly snapped the phone shut and tossing it back to Remy.

"That was odd." Remy said, hoping that Rogue would open up and tell him something about them, like why she had been so short with this Kitty person or why she was so concerned with this Bobby character.

Rogue only nodded.

"So…" Remy said smoothly. "Who's Logan?"

* * *

Logan stared down at the phone.

She did realize he could tell the difference between fake static and real static, right?

And who the hell was with her? _Chere?_She was with a _man?_

She didn't sound very good. And she was with a _man?_

She had expressly told him 'No' when he had told her he'd go get her…… _And she was with a man?_

The part of him that Logan assumed would have been a pretty kick-ass father did not like this.

"Uhm, Mr. Logan…" Kitty watched as Wolverine put on his jacket and snatched up the keys to his motorcycle. "Where are you going?"

"Field trip." Logan said shortly.


	3. Chapter 3

_*Whum whum whum whum*_

_JAMIE: Oh, it's cool, that's just my time paradox. His name is Phil._

_PHIL: Sup?_

_JAMIE: Phil's here to take care of that pesky 'Remy's way too old for Rogue' thing. You see, with this time paradox we can just say, for argument's sake, that Remy was 10 when he first met Logan. Right Phil?_

_PHIL: Yup._

_EVERYONE: …Maybe you should get some more sleep Jamie…_

_JAMIE: Nonsense! I have another chapter to write!_

* * *

Rogue knocked away his hand again as he toyed with the white bits of her hair. Again.

"You are no fun, _chere."_Remy pouted as they watched their bus pull up.

Rogue elbowed him slightly, wrinkling her nose. "I'm just tired." She said. Which was true. She was absolutely worn out. Three days without sleep will do that to you.

Remy bowed deeply as he took her gloved hand and helped her up the stairs of the bus. Rogue could almost hear the swoons of the dozen or so girls that had had their eyes on him. He continued with this chivalry nonsense as he escorted her to a seat next to a window, to which he promptly sat beside comfortably. She jutted out her chin defiantly unwilling to admit that she probably wouldn't have been able to make the journey by herself.

"I think they're gonna hunt you down." Rogue said, indicating his newly acquired fan base out the window to distract from her obvious discomfort.

"The ladies love me." He shrugged with a chuckle and slung his arm around the back of her seat so he could more easily play with her ponytail.

It was almost as if he could hear her heart double pace as his fingers went closer to the exposed skin at the back of her neck because he quickly withdrew his arm and offered a quick apology in French.

"It's alright," She assured him despite the fact she didn't know exactly what he had said. She found herself shrinking away more towards the window and trying to think of some way to cover up the back of her neck from now on. "What is a Louisiana boy like you doing in Baltimore?" She changed the subject.

"What's a Mississippi girl like you doing runnin' away from home?" He countered, obviously pleased that she had recognized his accent.

"Nobody said I was runnin'!" She glared at him.

"Oh, please," He rolled his eyes and felt comfortable enough to throw his arm back around her seat. "No money, no place to stay, no resources, awful thieving skills. You obviously haven't had the best hand with luck lately."

"That doesn' mean Ah was running!" Her accent spiked as she became more irritated with how much he had noticed.

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess it's Bobby's fault, 'cause you sounded too damn happy when you talked to Logan." Remy waved his hand in the air in a noncommittal sort of way.

"Your powers are pink." Rogue huffed, unknowingly confirming it to be true.

"Magenta!" He said defensively.

"You didn't answer my question, swamp rat." She sniffed.

"Which question was that, river rat?" He shot back almost immediately, not at all deterred by her prickly demeanor.

"What are you doin' in Baltimore?"

Remy hesitated a moment, internally conflicted between the lie he had prepared, and telling her the truth.

"Business." He compromised between the two sides.

Rogue stared at him skeptically for a moment wondering if she should push it.

_If he didn't push my powers, I'm not going to push this 'business'._She rationalized with a nod.

Remy was disappointed as the conversation faded to nonexistence when the bus roared to life and started it's trek north, but the girl looked like she was about to pass out from exhaustion.

With her forehead pressed against the glass her eyes started drooping dangerously.

He lightly nudged her shoulder with his fingers and she swayed slightly until her head crashed into his shoulder and she fell into a silent, peaceful sleep.

He smiled, content with his trick as he looped his arm around her and leaned back, sleep not sounding like a bad idea.

They could stretch their legs outside in about an hour.

He watched her steady breathing and decided that if he every met this 'Bobby' who had made this girl turn away from the things that made her smile, driving her to stealing and running, he was going to blow him up.

* * *

Normally, it would take roughly three and a half hours to get from New York to Maryland. That is, if you are using speed limits or even driving on roads.

Logan was doing neither.

In fact, he avoided both if at all possible.

That landed him at a little less than a two hour trip. He would have been proud of his new personal best if he hadn't been busy sniffing. Rogue trail was fresh and a welcome relief from the stale ones he had been trying to follow for months, but it wasn't alone. There was another trail that tangled with hers and followed her to the bus station. It resembled some odd mixture of sin and smoke.

It was strangely familiar…

…Like something he had known in a different life time…

He shook off the feeling, firmly telling himself that he was going to figure it out later, but his first priority was to get the kid.

"Uh…" Someone said from behind him. "Can I help you?"

Logan realized that a man crouching down in the middle of a bus station, sniffing the air might look a little weird to someone else. Not that he cared, but it was an observation.

"Hi," He turned to the woman who was giving him an odd look as he straightened up to his full height. "I'm looking for a girl with brown and white hair. She was here earlier. She was with a man."

"Oh," The woman's face brightened up. "She was the girl with that hunk of a man! They were so cute!"

Logan cringed at her choice of words and wondered if he was going to have to kill this 'hunk of a man'.

"They left about an hour ago." She continued with a perky smile, unaware of Logan's violent thoughts.

"Which bus did they take?" He asked. She handed him the pamphlet with the bus listing on them and pointed out the one they took.

"It has three stops along the way." She said. "I don't know which one they would get off at. Sorry I couldn't help more."

"Thank you." He smirked. The next stop was about an hour away.

An hour away if you were using speed limits or driving on roads, that is…

As Logan hopped on his motorcycle he let his thoughts wander back to Bobby goddamn Drake.

This was all his fault.

Logan wouldn't be contemplating the murder of a man he didn't know while hunting down the girl whose life he had saved upon several different occasions if Bobby hadn't been and idiot. Next time he saw that kid he was going to stab him.

* * *

Bobby Drake was sitting at his desk, studying Greek and Roman architecture for his next quiz in his early civilization class.

His head suddenly snapped up and he was overcome with a feeling he had gotten the day before Logan had returned to the mansion for the first time since Jean and the Professor died.

It was the feeling one gets when they're due for an ass kicking in the near future.

"I'm being silly," He tried to discourage the feeling. "It's not like I've got some dangerous people after me." He chuckled nervously…

…And then checked under his bed and in his closet…


	4. Chapter 4

_JAMIE: Ready, Phil?_

_PHIL: *situates some badass goggles* Yeah._

_JAMIE: Alright- CHAPTER 4! Go!_

_

* * *

_

She screamed as her feet slipped through the mud that she was nearly coated with again, her fingernails were bloody from clawing at the ground and walls as she was dragged. She kicked and clawed- lashed out with everything she had, but it was never enough. They kept piling up, more and more of those uniformed demons grabbed at her and hooked their talons into her skin and worn out clothes as they dragged her towards the gates that loomed like death.

"Mama!" She screamed, reaching out for a woman being dragged in the opposite direction. "Mama!" She screamed again throwing out her arm towards the woman and she herself was dragged past the gates.

The metal gates closed, sealing her inside with the monsters that were still dragging her.

"No!" She screamed, hand still outstretched towards the gates.

She tried to kick harder, bite faster, elbow deeper- but she didn't have enough power. She needed to get out! She _needed…_

The sensation started in her fingertips. It was almost a burning sensation, but it didn't hurt. It felt like power. As if rising to respond to the power, the metal of the gates that had seemed so intimidating only moments before as she had been dragged by these monsters contorted to her will. It flexed dangerously. She grit her teeth and pulled harder, not knowing what the force roaring through her was and not exactly caring either. All she knew is she needed more of it if she was going to get out of here alive. If she was going to have any sort of revenge at all.

"Make him stop!" Someone commanded.

"_Nein! Berühren Sie nicht mir!"_Rogue screamed, jolting out of her sleeping state.

"_Chere,"_A mildly familiar voice tried to break through her panic. "Are you all right?" The man belonging to the voice tried to reach out and comfort her.

"_Berühren Sie nicht mir!"_She repeated, scrambling away from his grasp and pressing herself against the window.

"Rogue." He said firmly, reaching out for her again. "Calm down. It was only a dream."

She yanked her own hair in front of her face and studied the white streaks.

"Rogue." She repeated, her normally southern accent tainted by another, more foreign, one. "The girl with the powers…" She tangled her own fingers in the white parts of her hair.

"Rogue?" Remy was starting to become concerned. She looked up at him and he saw that her eyes were an experienced blue in the place of the innocent green ones she had displayed earlier.

He held her gaze for a few moments.

Finally, she put her hand up to her head, blinking away the blue eyes in favor of her green ones.

"What happened?" She looked around in confusion.

"You just had a little nightmare." Remy tried to assure her with a smile, suppressing her panic with his empathy.

"What did I say?" She asked airily.

"Something in German… I couldn't understand…"

"German?" She tested the word, still breathing heavily from her outburst. She looked confused for a moment, but then seemed to reach some conclusion. "Erik."

"Erik?" Remy looked at her funny, feeling some of his good humor return now that the concern had subsided. "How many men am I gonna have to fight for you _chere?_Bobby? Logan? And now Erik?"

She laughed uneasily, still slightly shaken.

"Come on, _chere,"_He gently took her elbow and helped her into a standing position. "Let's go stretch our legs for a minute." He said and Rogue noticed for the first time that the bus was almost completely deserted.

"Are we there?" She asked hopefully. The sooner this was over, the sooner she could fill in her old role of the outcast's outcast.

"Almost," He said gingerly, pulling her off the bus with him. "Just had to make a short stop."

She nodded as they walked. The bus station had been next to a train yard and her feet steered her towards it without her knowledge and Remy seemed to be content with letting her lead the way for right now. Civilization disappeared around the corner before the spoke again.

"Who's Erik?" Remy asked, toying with her sleeve. The man seemed to thrive off of touch, when he wasn't playing with her hair; he was tracing invisible patterns on her gloves, looping his arms around her shoulders, or something of that nature. A man like him wasn't meant to be around a girl like her.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her tone.

"You don't trust me?" He asked, smile almost blinding.

"It's not that." She shook her head. "I just don't want you to be afraid of me."

"I could never be afraid of you," He laughed, putting his arm around her waist.

Upon later review, it was probably that little action that prompted the entire ordeal. Just an innocent touch of slight intimacy.

Of course, Logan didn't really see it as an 'innocent' touch at all.

Before Remy knew what was happening, he was pinned to the ground by a growling, clawed animal.

"Logan!" Rogue screamed.

Logan considered responding to her voice for a moment before a long metal staff that had appeared out of nowhere came into contact with his jaw, throwing him off the man.

"Remy!" Rogue turned to the other man.

"It's alright, _chere."_This 'Remy' person assured her, twirling around the staff in his fingers and holding it stiffly behind him in a ready position. "I won' hurt him too bad." He grinned like the devil.

Well, that was the last damn straw.

Logan screamed with fury, launching himself at the younger man in full attack mode, losing himself to his animal side.

Rogue watched events unfold with a look of pure horror stuck on her face. She had only heard Logan this mad once, and that was when he had been fighting Sabretooth on top of the Statue of Liberty. One thing was certain right now, she had to get Remy the hell out of there!

Remy was doing a damn good job of holding his own against this Logan, who looked weirdly familiar, not that he had time to linger on that thought as he narrowly avoided claws aimed at his heart.

Blocking a second attack, Remy boosted himself into the air with his staff, flipping neatly over Logan and pushed him off balance in the same motion. He had the rest of the battle laid out in his head. Logan was going to turn, swipe, Remy would back up three steps, swing, and Logan would stumble back slightly to the right. Three more quick hits and he could probably subdue the man.

The only thing he didn't figure into this plan was Rogue.

She shot out faster than would have thought possible for a girl in her condition, kicked his feet out from underneath him and stole his staff, turning around only in the nick of time to block Logan's next attack.

"Logan!" Rogue cried, the staff she had appropriated glancing off of his claws as the murder in his eyes stayed constant. "It's me!"

Logan was beyond reaching at this point.

"It's me!" She tried again, retreating in the face of his claws. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Remy get back up and try and come to her aide. She didn't want anyone hurt. Forcefully pushing Logan off of her, she turned to Remy again, slamming the staff into his chest, sending his back to the ground. She whipped back around to Logan quickly, but not quick enough.

Three claws pierced her stomach.

"Rogue!" Remy was rushing towards her again.

The scream snapped Logan out of it.

_Rogue._

"Dammit, kid." Logan cursed, retracting his claws and easing the bleeding girl to the ground.

She gasped for air with something that could have resembled a smile on her face. "Nice to have you back." She said wetly.

"Sorry."

Remy was quick to start medical procedures, but Logan cut off his movements.

"She'll be fine." He snapped, peeling off his own glove and laying his bare hand against Rogue's pale face.

Her back arched momentarily as she felt his life force fading under the contact. Gasping for air again, she pushed herself away from a panting Logan. She could feel the pain ease in her abdomen as her stab wounds healed over. The rasp in her throat started to ease, her breathing became less laborious and a healthy flush returned to her cheeks.

"Dammit, Logan!" She looked down at herself. "This was my last shirt!"

They both burst out laughing and embraced warmly.

"Well, hell." Remy said. "I'm confused."

"Sorry," Rogue said, finally looking at him. "I guess I should have explained when I had the chance."

"You don't have to explain anything to him, kid." Logan growled. Remy locked eyes with the man.

"Do I know you?" They both said in unison, quickly on their feet, one with claws on hand, the other with a deck of cards.

"Children!" Rogue interrupted, struggling to stand. Remy and Logan both went to help her at the same time and upon realizing this, resumed attack positions. Rogue turned to Remy. "Remy, let Logan be, he's just a little grumpy because he hasn't seen me for over a year."

Logan chuckled at his lecture before Rogue turned on him.

"And you, Mr. Wolverine-."

"Wait." Remy's attack position loosened slightly. "Wolverine?" His face split with a smile and he regarded Logan again. "Logan?" He burst out laughing.

"What?" Logan barked.

"Your hair looks so much dumber than the last time I saw you!" Remy gasped for air, wiping at tears of laughter. "I didn't think it was possible!"

"When was the last time you saw me?" Logan asked trying not to be self conscious about his hair… it spiked up sometimes, he couldn't help it…

"Uh…" Remy looked thoughtful for a moment. "A couple years ago. You needed to go to an island and I was the only man that knew the way." He turned to Rogue. "You should have seen him. The man _does not_like airplanes."

Rogue giggled. "Oh, I know that. There was this one time in the X-Jet-."

"I don't remember you." Logan said, cutting into the story mostly because he wanted answers, but also because he hated it when they told the story about how he tried to jump out of the jet in mid-flight.

"An adamantium bullet to the forehead could to that to a man I suppose." Remy responded coolly.

Logan pulled Rogue closer to his chest, wary of the Cajun man who knew things about him he didn't.

"Logan," Rogue said in a soothing tone. "Remy is a nice guy. He helped me."

Logan's eyes ran over the man again, trying to sum him up. He had helped Rogue, he knew things about Logan's past and he was quick with a smart remark and a fight, the kind of man Logan could relate to. Only problem was, _He. Had. Touched. The. Kid._

"Come on, kid." Logan started to tug her away, deciding he wanted nothing to do with the man. "We're goin' home."

"Not so fast, _homme."_Remy quickly slipped Rogue out of Logan's grasp and stood in front of her protectively. "I promised de _belle_that I would help her back home, an' I haven' done that yet. So, she's not leaving my sight until she tells me she wants me to leave."

"Only one problem, bub." Logan growled. "You don't have a ride." He crossed his arms over his chest smugly as the bus tore down the road behind him.

"It seems we have something' in common." Remy flipped a set of keys around in his fingers.

"The hell?" Logan patted down his pockets.

Rogue groaned.

"You both are actin' like five year olds!" She complained.

"I wasn't the one that stabbed you in the stomach!" Remy protested.

"He's stabbed me before." Rogue brushed it off. "It's more like a greeting now than an actual threat."

"So that's it? Healing is your power?" He looked at her funny. "That's not scary."

"No." Rogue shook her head. "Healing is Logan's power."

"I'm confused again." Remy admitted.

Rogue and Logan shared a look, Logan understood now. Remy didn't know she couldn't touch. If he reacted anything like the others had when she explained it, Logan would never have to worry about where Gumbo was putting his hands ever again. Maybe he could tolerate the man after that.

"Remy," Rogue started, breaking away her eyes from the company surrounding her in favor of staring at her feet. "I'm a leech."

Remy wrinkled his brow in confusion.

"If I touched you right now," She continued. "I'd know why you were in Baltimore actually, how you stole those keys out of Logan's pockets, and the most terrible things you have ever done. I'd have all of your powers but a fraction of your control. You'd probably go into a coma and never wake up."

_She can't touch at all._Remy realized, shooting down several of his plans with the girl. _Damn._

"So?" Rogue said after a few silent moments, looking up to catch his reaction. Wolverine smugly looked on.

"I think that sounds like a challenge, _chere."_He smirked like the demon he was. "And Remy LeBeau has _never_turned down a challenge."

Logan and Rogue stood still, mouths dropped, stunned by his reaction.

"Now," Remy regarded their faces with amusement. "I'll go lift us another motorcycle and we can be on our merry way."

He walked away, whistling a perky tune.

Rogue didn't know whether she was relieved or afraid of his reaction. One thing was for sure, she didn't really mind the feeling.

Logan was wondering how many years of therapy the kid would need if he gutted the Cajun right now. Three? Four?


	5. Chapter 5

The sound of Bobby's tapping foot was the only noise in the rec room. Piotr Rasputin, Kitty Pryde, Jubilation Lee, and Warren Worthington III all watched him sweat and glance around the room like something was going to fall out of the sky and crush him.

"Bobby," Kitty snapped, finally having had enough. "Stop being so paranoid! No one's just going to show up out of nowhere and punch you in the face!"

"Yeah," Jubilee confirmed. "Logan's not here right now and anyone who just shows up isn't going to have a reason to hate you."

"You are nice guy." Piotr added in his thick Russian accent. "Except for when you break Rogue's heart. That was not so nice."

Bobby went paler and turned to Warren expectantly.

"Hey," Warren held up his hands. "Don't look at me. I wasn't the one that told you to go fool around with Kitty."

Bobby laughed spastically and Kitty threw a pillow from the sofa at his face.

"Sorry, sorry!" He said, visibly calming down. "You guys are right. No one's gonna kill me today-."

"Sh!" Piotr suddenly said. Interrupting whatever else Bobby was going to say. "Does anyone else hear that?"

Everyone in the room listened closely. It sounded like… motorcycles?

"Two?" Warren asked, simultaneously unfurling his wings.

"Didn't you say Wolverine had just talked to Rogue before he took off?" Jubilee said, barely containing her excitement.

Everyone considered this for a moment before sprinting to the front of the mansion.

Two motorcycles were parked on the gravel driveway, Logan was straddling one while glaring at the attractive man leaning against the second, who was smiling down at a familiar figure sprawled on the ground, hand planted on her heaving chest as if her heart were going to explode.

"Never, _ever,_do that again!" Rogue breathed heavily, glaring up at the tall stranger.

"Aw, _chere,_you're no fun." He pretended to pout and Jubilee and Kitty swooned.

"There is a difference between _fun_ and doing a wheelie on a motorcycle that has two people on it at seventy five miles per hour on a gravel driveway!" Rogue tried to yell, but she was too busy gasping for air.

"Rogue!" Piotr was first to snap out of the daze caused by seeing her, his metallic armor slid into place because he knew it was harder for her to absorb as he picked her up and pulled her into a giant bear hug which she almost disappeared in.

"Pete!" Rogue squealed, hugging him right back after a moment. "I missed you!"

"You did not leave because there was something more I could have done, then?" Piotr asked sheepishly.

"Oh no, sweetie." Rogue said sadly. "There was nothing you could have done."

"I could have told you sooner." Piotr shrugged. "Perhaps then you would not have run away."

"Probably not." Rogue grinned wickedly.

Piotr broke away from their hug and looked Rogue over. "What happened to your shirt?" He turned to Logan "Did you stab her again?"

"It was an accident."

"And here I thought y'all were lying to me about all that." The stranger's voice caught everyone's attention. He was obviously a mutant judging by those red on black eyes he had been inspecting Piotr with. He finally decided that the hug had been more paternal and let him alone.

"Oh," Rogue said, blushing. "Sorry. Everyone this is Rem-"

"Call me Gambit." He cut in, flashing a smile that caused Kitty and Jubilee to swoon again.

"It is very pleasant to be meeting you." Piotr extended his hand out to Gambit, who accepted it in a friendly manner. "How is it you came to be with Wolverine and Rogue?"

"Well, de _fille_tried to swipe my wallet, then I hunted her down and she proceeded to pour hot soup on herself. After taking off her shirt in the middle of public and asking me if I was going to kill her I decided to take pity on her and offer to take her home." He said, chuckling slightly.

"That's not how it happened, swamp rat!" Rogue protested.

"That's exactly how it happened, _chere."_He mocked her, tugging on her hair slightly.

It didn't escape his attention how everyone winced when he got close to her.

Next to introduce himself was Warren, he hugged Rogue tightly, used to being close to her because it was him who always had to drop her on someone in battle and then scoop her up again, and he shook Gambit's hand in a very firm, business hold.

"Glad to hear someone can keep her in line." Warren smiled indicating Rogue. Rogue stuck out her tongue at him and he shot her a nasty face in return. Remy laughed, deciding their relationship was more of a brother/sister relationship.

The two that introduced themselves as Jubilee and Kitty giggled all over him until he maneuvered close enough to Rogue that Kitty feared for her life and Jubilee feared for her new shoes.

"Uh…Hi, Rogue." The last boy that had run out said. He was an all-American sort of kid, one they could slap on posters and replicate a million times. He stepped forward timidly and hugged Rogue closely, unlike the other two hugs; she didn't hesitate before hugging him back.

Remy watched him the same way he had with the other boys. The hug seemed to be more emotional than the other ones while simultaneously _infinitely _more awkward.

Warning bells went off- his hands were _not_staying in the user friendly areas.

Remy and Logan both rearranged their postures to be more aggressive.

Rogue pushed him away, whether it was because of the hands or Logan and Gambit's reaction, no one knew.

Remy cleared his throat pointedly.

"Oh, Right." Rogue shook her head, trying to clear up her now confused thoughts. "Remy, this is Bobby-."

"Bobby?" Remy interrupted with disbelief.

"Yeah," Bobby smiled. "Why-."

Remy punched the kid in the face.

"Good deed for today - done." Remy said simply as everyone stared at the unconscious form of Bobby Drake.

Suddenly, Logan burst out laughing. "I change my mind, I like this guy." He said between gasps of air.

Warren was having a similar reaction a few feet away, Kitty was stuck in a state of appall, Piotr altered from being concerned to some make-shift form of redemption and back again several times, Jubilee was confused as too what exactly she was supposed to do, and Rogue stared at the Cajun in pure shock.

Again, Piotr was the first to snap out of it. Hefting the limp form of Bobby over his shoulder, he shot Gambit a smile. No hard feeling there.

"Will you not be staying with us at the mansion?"

Remy hesitated a moment. His plan had been to go back to New Orleans, to sneak around, get money, steal women… or was it the other way around? But something happened right then, it was slightly insignificant in anyone else's eyes and entirely innocent in its qualities, but Remy was smart enough to know that it meant the world.

Rogue tangled her gloved fingers in his apprehensively.

She _touched_him.

In the short time he had known the girl he knew she shied away from even the remotest contact with anyone besides Logan and apparently Bobby. But, for the first time, it was her who initiated touch with him.

"I don' see how it could hurt." He smiled at the tall Russian, lightly squeezing the fragile hand in his grasp.

"Come on, kid." Logan pulled Rogue out of his hands. Whether it was on purpose or coincidence, Remy didn't appreciate the gesture. "I'm sure 'Ro's gonna want to see ya." He started pulling her forward. "She's gonna want to meet you too." He threw over his shoulder too Remy before pulling Rogue all the way out of his view.

Remy tried not to pout as he followed the metal man with the unconscious body thrown over his shoulder, avoiding the advances of the very persistent Kitty and Jubilee.

He wanted his river rat back.


	6. Chapter 6

Ororo Munroe watched the girl shuffle around on her feet nervously and found it hard to believe it was the same girl who had run away a year prior.

The streets had not been kind. She looked so much thinner than Storm remembered, so worn and vulnerable. Her clothes were almost threadbare. Her shirt was torn and spattered with blood. That wasn't the part that concerned Ororo, it's that, if the girl had anything else to wear, she would have put that on. Her eyes were dark, not with make up, but with lack of sleep. The air about her sent a spiked message -_Stay away-._The message had been loud and clear a year ago, but now it seemed like almost a threat. She was still the shy, insecure young woman she had been when she tore out of the mansion, only now, it seemed like she understood the evil that was out there, and instead of fearing it, she had adapted.

"Rogue." Storm gently took the younger woman's hand. "It's very good to see you."

Rogue chewed on her lip nervously. Was she afraid of rejection?

"Have you come back to stay?" Storm asked hopefully. Charles Xavier would have wanted to redeem the world in the eyes of this girl, and so, Storm would make it her mission to do so.

"If I can." Rogue said tentatively, still avoiding eye contact with the white haired weather goddess.

"I know that the X-men would greatly appreciate your return." Ororo offered with a smile.

"Really?" Rogue brightened.

Ororo laughed. "I know that Piotr desperately misses fighting someone with the same power as him and I think Warren just wants to drop you on people again."

Rogue laughed and Storm was happy to see a humanizing blush creep into her face.

"Do you need some clothes?" She asked after the laughter faded.

Rogue self-consciously covered up the blood stains and easily recognizable triple slashes in an attempt to protect Logan. She slowly nodded her head.

"Alright." Ororo said gently, knowing that she shouldn't force anything onto her. "Would you like to borrow one of my shirts until we get a chance to get you some new things?"

Rogue slowly nodded her head again.

"Alright," She repeated and purposely wrapped her arm around her shoulders, guiding Rogue out of the room. "Everything is going to be-."

"_Chere!_" There was a flurry of movement down the halls and Ororo could almost feel the younger girl bloom under her hand with happiness. "I've been havin' a little trouble finding _your_room, and _Monsieur_Claws won't leave me alone!" The man indicated a Logan-shaped figure creeping in the shadows behind him.

"Remy?" Storm did a double take at the young man.

He turned to her.

"Stormy?" His red on black eyes flicked over her. Yep, that was Remy alright.

He nearly tackled her with a warm, sexless, hug.

"Stormy!"

"I told you not to call me 'Stormy'!" Storm snipped before she could stop herself, Remy always brought out the child in her.

"Oh, please." He scoffed, releasing her. "You _love_'Stormy'."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

Storm crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm still older than you!"

"I'm still bigger than you!" He drew himself up to his full height, which was a good few inches above Ororo's.

Storm stuck her tongue out at him.

Rogue and Logan stood by, completely stunned by watching the thirty-something headmistress of the Xavier Institute get into a playground fight with a twenty-something man.

Where had the logic gone?

"Are you staying?" Storm asked, still pouting slightly.

"Only if I'm welcomed." He bowed deeply in a gesture of mock formality.

"Any mutant is allowed here." She said. "Unless they happen to be _the_Remy LeBeau."

"That's rich considering his protégé runs the place." He laughed.

"Protégé?" Rogue asked suddenly.

"What now, _chere?"_Remy pretended he hadn't heard the girl.

"You called her your protégé." Rogue attempted to clarify. "Protégé of what, exactly?"

"Me an' Stormy go way back." Remy gave her that not-an-answer. Ororo watched him carefully, but decided that it was Remy prerogative to disclose details about his past to his friends.

"Do you secretly know all of the X-men?" Logan snorted at Remy.

"Only the pretty ones." He smiled at Rogue as he slung one of his arms around her shoulder and gave her a light squeeze. "…And you." He said to Logan.

_Whoa- Backtrack!_

Was Remy LeBeau -the sleazy snake-charmer Storm knew and fought with- flirting with an untouchable girl? She immediately retracted her early thought about it being his prerogative about anything if he was choosing to get mixed up with Rogue.

"Rogue," Storm was suddenly serious again. "Go change your shirt. Remy, I need to see you in my office. Right. Now."

Remy mumbled something about how he would rather go with Rogue to change her shirt, but followed her nonetheless.

The echoing of Logan's growl reverberated around the halls as Storm slammed the door to her office closed.

"Remy LeBeau!" Storm barked as soon as the door shut. "I don't know what you're doing here, but you're leaving this instant! There is no way I am going to stand back and let you play your game with that girl!"

Remy kept his damn irritating cool, leaning against one of the walls next to the window; the sunlight glanced off his hair, as if in an attempt to make him look angelic. A vision that was significantly marred by the spark in his demon eyes.

"I don't know what game you're talking 'bout, Stormy."

"Yes you do!" Storm nearly shouted. "I've seen you play it with women ever since I can remember! You make them fall in love with you and then you just leave them in the dust, because everyone just _has _to be as miserable as you, don't they? That girl, the one you were flirting with out there, has been through more levels of hell than you could even _comprehend, _and she doesn't need you to add to it." 

"Like Bobby did." He tacked onto the end of her sentence.

"Yes." Storm sighed. "Like Bobby did."

Remy waited for her to say something else.

"Look," She obliged finally. "You know that I would have no problem with you here if I knew you would listen to me and _leave her alone._But, I know you. There is a better chance of snow in hell than Remy LeBeau taking orders." She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "The last time she finally started trusting someone, we lost her for a year when he betrayed her. Now the only person she trusts enough to touch is Logan, and Logan would never hurt her. I want a chance to help her, and that's not going to happen if you're around."

Remy contemplated this.

"Wrong." He said after a moment.

"I'm sorry?" Storm tried to understand his meaning.

"Since I met that girl I've seen her steal, run, and bleed. Do you know how many of those things were _my _fault?" He demanded. "None of 'em. All of those things happened because of her 'friends'. I haven't done a single thing to hurt that girl- In fact, _she _touched _me." _

"She… touched… you?" Ororo was stunned.

Remy held out his hand as if it were proof.

Storm looked up at him suddenly. Her eyes were white. Lightning crackled above her head.

"You haven't even told her about Belle, have you?" Her tone offered no space for him to interject his own words. "Or Jean Luc. Henri? Mercy? Etienne? What about all of the things you've done?"

"Well, it hasn't really come up yet."

"If you hurt this girl, Remy, I will personally shoot you with lightning in a _very_unfriendly place, shortly followed by-." Her threat was cut short by a bright red light, but there had been breathing room in that threat, an 'if'.

Storm _literally_growled at Remy while she picked up a small piece of technology that had been laying on her desk and Remy was reminded of a mother bear about to kill something threatening her young.

_Good lord, that woman is frightening._Remy thought to himself.

_Maybe she's right._His conscience mumbled. _She's probably be better off with an all- American boy scout then a Cajun thief._

_Shut. Up._Remy responded roughly. _You see, this is why I ignore you. Trying to put these bad ideas in my head. I am not leaving ma chere alone with these people. They already messed up once and it nearly killed her._

Storm slammed the little x-shaped device back down on the table, before picking it back up, slamming it down several more times in a fit of rage, holding it back up, clicked it open and regained composure before putting it to her ear.

"Logan," She said into the 'x', still not acknowledging Remy's existence yet. "Grab Rogue and get suited up. We have an issue. Get Bobby, Piotr, Warren, and Kitty While your at it."

Pause.

"_What do you mean Bobby's unconscious?"_Strom's eyes were completely white.

_And now, for Remy LeBeau's graceful exit!_He thought while backing up to the window.

"Don't you dare move!" Storm glared at him. Suddenly her smile turned honey-sweet. "If you're going to be staying here, you are going to have to earn your keep." She tossed him a device similar to the one she had just tried to destroy.

He caught the silver 'x' deftly and began to fiddle with it. It looked like a communicator…

"Welcome to the X-men, Remy LeBeau."


	7. Chapter 7

Remy had been in a vicious mood since Storm had told him that either he was on the team or he was out of the mansion. Though he should have been happy for the job at all considering upon his arrival he knocked one of her students unconscious and apparently gotten to close for comfort with another. Oopsie.

And now it seemed this band of Nancy Do-Gooders had a job to do! The very thought of association made him gag. At least he didn't have to put on one of those leather get ups that they all seemed to be wearing, but Storm assured him that his would be provided as soon as physically possible.

Again, Remy was in a _vicious_mood.

Until he saw Rogue.

_I want to hear three words from you-_He sent to her telepathically despite the fact that he wasn't a telepath.

Rogue tugged self-consciously at the tight leather outfit that encased her body to clarify what exactly perfection looked like. Remy suddenly found himself not minding the leather outfits.

Remy wolf-whistled to get her attention

"It's my uniform." She explained meekly, blushing.

There is a God.

"You should pick up your jaw before I cut it off, Gumbo." Wolverine growled from somewhere behind him, wearing a similar outfit to Rogue's… Remy liked it better on her.

"Don't mock the kid." Angel chuckled. "I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes off her, too." He obviously joked. Rogue chucked a water bottle at him and he deflected it with his wings before blowing a raspberry in her direction. "Why don't we get more practical uniforms?" He complained, trying to flex awkwardly in the tight leather.

"I'll tell you what," Logan said smartly. "Next time we'll get you some white and red spandex, maybe we'll throw on a halo just for kicks."

Warren barked with laughter before pretending to strangle Logan behind his back.

"Get back in your seat before I'm convinced that Angel's _can_die." Wolverine snarled when he caught him.

"Hah!" Warren laughed. "I think you forgot I don't _need_to be on this plane."

Wolverine was about to throw some crippling retort back but was interrupted by a petite brunette.

"Sorry I'm late!" Kitty cried, phasing into the X-jet. "Bobby's nose was broken and I needed to-." She stopped babbling when she saw the company she found herself in. "Why is he here?" She looked at Remy and batted her eyelashes. Did anyone actually care that he had broken their teammate's nose and knocked him unconscious?

Remy felt the anger flare in Rogue and was pretty sure that the Mississippi spitfire was about to kill a little kitty cat.

The smaller girl seemed to realize this and cowered behind the Russian.

"Calm down, Kitty." Piotr could barely hide his smirk.

"In case someone didn't get the memo," Wolverine grumbled at Kitty. "Gambit's part of the team now."

"What?" Kitty screeched. "I was here for three years before I got on the team. He's been here for an hour!"

"I've had a bit more training than you, Kitty cat." Remy could hardly keep his chuckle in when he saw her features turn indignant, assuming that he was making an assumption when he said that. It wasn't an assumption. It was a fact.

"Oh yeah?" Kitty challenged, stepping out from behind the metal man and boldly up to Remy.

"_Oui._" Remy smirked. "And, I'd be glad to prove that point, but I think we've got business to take care of, no?"

"He is right." Piotr interjected. "There was mutant attacking group of human protestors in downtown New York. We should be going now."

"Now that half-pint's here, we can." Logan snorted and took a seat in the cockpit.

"Who was it?" Remy asked.

"Don' know." Logan responded shortly.

So, they were headed out to downtown New York to attempt to apprehend a mutant that A.) they knew nothing about, including powers, physical features or how exactly they had managed to send thirty nine people to the hospital earlier today and B.) Had taken off from the scene twelve minutes ago. A good criminal could be in Cuba in three.

_Why am I doing this, again?_Remy asked himself, internally rolling his eyes at the thought of doing something that wasn't directly for his benefit.

Rogue leaned into him so that she could point out the basketball court opening above their heads.

_Oh, right._He thought.

Rogue pulled away, catching the look he had given her.

"Watch it, swamp rat." She eyed him.

"I was trying to, _chere._" He replied smartly.

Warren watched Gambit tease Rogue with part amusement and part astonishment. He had seen the young woman he considered almost a sister to him, even after a year, _touch_the stranger. According to Gambit, they had only met earlier that day.

How had the man done it?

It had taken Warren three months to get permission to _think_ about touching Rogue, and that was only in battle situations. He still had yet to feel her reach out for him the way she did with Logan, and used to with Bobby.

Warren stressed the words _used to_in his mind, because Bobby didn't want to hear 'used to', he was always babbling about 'were and would be again'. The boy wanted what he couldn't have, grew insanely jealous of other men in a ten foot radius around it and simultaneously ignored it's needs when he had it, and wanted it even worse after it caught him in a compromising position with a certain Katherine Pryde and ran away for a year.

_Idiot._He thought to himself, bearing the brunt of some of Bobby's overprotective boyfriend ravings. Piotr had gotten a good percentage of them too, just for trying to get closer to her.

Warren let his thoughts wander back to Gambit.

Well, Rogue liked him, Wolverine hadn't killed him, he made Storm act like a six-year-old, and _he had punched Bobby in the face._Warren approved.

_Now we need to see how useful he's going to be in a battle._Warren thought.

The jet landed softly a short distance away from the site where the protest had been attacked so that it wouldn't be blaringly obvious that a group of mutants had just exited a large jet next to the area where another mutant had just tried to kill a good percent of the mutant hating population.

Chunks of asphalt were missing out of the ground. Blood stained parts of the streets. Discarded items littered the ground from where people had been in to much of a hurry to dispose of it properly.

"Wow." Remy whistled. "Someone was busy…"

Wolverine sniffed the air, avoiding the looks that the local law enforcement was giving him.

"This way." His voice seemed to grow hoarser when he was using his animal instincts.

The others followed him, Remy tagged along, silently lifting the contents of carelessly abandoned purses as he strolled behind them. You didn't need to be a genius to tell that he wasn't taking this seriously in the slightest.

"He's in here somewhere." Logan growled, indicating a building that had been singled out in build so that it was easily identifiable as a bad place to be. "Colossus, Shadowcat, you go inside and try to clear out anyone who could be injured before I go in. Angel, you keep watch from above. Gumbo, Rogue, you two go around to the back in case he tries to get out. Understood?" He instructed with the obvious tones of a leader.

"Wait-." Remy interrupted the murmurs of affirmative. "I don' get it. Am I Gumbo?"

"Just. Move." Logan growled and everyone sprang into action. Remy pretended to care, though he was completely fine with following Rogue as she lead the way around the building.

Out of sheer boredom, the cards that were constantly present in the pocket of his trench coat found their way into his hand, and not too soon after that, sailing through the air to the back of Rogue's head.

Rogue picked another card out of her hair and tore it in half.

"Stop it." She turned around to catch a grinning Remy stuffing a deck of cards back into his pocket. "We have a job to do."

"Oh please," Remy rolled his eyes with his characteristic grin. "Nothing is going to happen. This place is em-." He leapt out and tackled Rogue to the ground as something very sharp and moving very quickly struck the wall where her neck had just been.

"I may have been mistaken." Remy allowed before whipping out his cards again and turning to the threat.

A man with long white hair and sharp, angular features stood solidly at the other end of the cluttered road.

Remy's blood went cold.

_This is why we take serious things seriously._His conscience chastised.

_Yes, thank you._Remy snarled, starting to despise the little voice more and more as of late.

He charged a card in his hand, fully expecting a fight.

The man's smile quirked and an evil insanity entered his eyes.

"Well, lookey here." He mused. "It's the little Cajun that could."

"And the little Riptide that shouldn't." Remy retorted darkly.


	8. Chapter 8

Rogue clutched her side and was only vaguely aware as Remy mumbled something in her ear before standing up and facing the man that had attacked her. She ran her fingers gently down her sides and found some lovely little fractures. Her gaze wandered up the wall to where a projectile of some sort had narrowly avoided decapitating her.

Remy had protected her. For the second time. That day.

"Well, lookey here." The man smirked, the deep insanity in his eyes directed at Remy. "It's the little Cajun that could."

Rogue looked up sharply, still tucked away in the shadow she had fallen in. The closest illumination was the glow from the charged card in Remy's hand.

"And the little Riptide that shouldn't." Remy shot back.

They knew each other?

_If this 'Riptide' fool touches Remy in any harmful way, I'm gonna snap his spine in half like a toothpick._ She swore vehemently, trying to collect herself enough to sit up.

"And who's the little chickey in the corner?" 'Riptide' smirked, cold eyes scanning the shadows. He made no move to get into a fighting stance, just stood there, hands on hips, legs spread in a wide, solid standing position. "I'd like to get to know here a little better."

"I'd advise against that if you favor your life." Remy snarled, unleashing half a dozen charged cards on to the man.

Riptide stealthily ducked under the ones aimed for his head and did a flying roll through the smoke caused by the ones aimed for his legs. He landed solidly in front of Remy.

"Do you ever think about it?" Riptide asked coolly, as if they were having a normal conversation. "Does it ever wake you up at night? Does it ever make you do something stupid?"

It? What 'it'?

Rogue struggled to stand, only to collapse again when she couldn't get enough air into her lungs to justify movement.

"Enough!" Remy finally lost his cool, hauling out his staff he charged it until the power crackled through out the air and slamming it into Riptide's chest.

The staff stuck where it struck, and started to swirl away with the weird new currents Riptide's body was taking.

"I don't." He smirked, as if unaware of the manifestation of his mutant power. His body started to swirl faster. "I've never lost a minute of sleep. The memories of those screams are like a little lullaby..." His cackle echoed across the caverns of the empty alley.

Rogue curled herself into a little ball, trying to make herself as small of a target as possible when more of the objects that had nearly killed her earlier rolled off Riptide's body, loudly cutting through objects in every direction. She wanted to scream, but the intake of oxygen required to do so crashed against her ribs painfully.

Remy crouched down low, reminding her of a cougar about to pounce. Riptide laughed manically, shooting off the sharp objects in no particular pattern. Remy's shoulders rolled apprehensively under the contours of his coat as he waited for an opening.

_Get. Up._She scorned herself for being so useless. _Get up, and take that bastard down._

Rogue groaned, hoisting herself into a semi-upright position, avoiding projectiles as she crawled forward towards Remy, feeling the need to be close to him. Whether if it was so that she could protect him, or be protected, she couldn't tell.

She screamed out of shock when one of the spikes almost took off her fingers and drew back quickly. She rolled out of the way as three more punctured the ground where she had just been.

"Time to put an end to _this _shit!" Remy growled, planting his hands firmly on the closest wall.

* * *

_BOOM_

Logan looked around wildly.

What the hell was that?

One of the outer walls on the building next to the one he was watching carefully started to collapse down into the alleyway between the two. The smell of debris and blood immediately became apparent on the air.

He cursed and was immediately on his communicator while simultaneously running to the wreckage.

"Angel, I need you down here. There was an explosion of some sort. I smell injuries. Shadowcat, I'll need your help to get anyone caught in the rubble out. Colossus, I'd tell you to stay, but I know you won't, so you can come too. Rogue-."

No response.

"Goddammit." Logan cursed under his breath and didn't even bother to page the Cajun. He already knew that if Rogue was in any trouble, he had either caused it or was trying to get her out of it… probably both.

Rooting frantically through the medium sized bits of once-was wall, he called out for signs of life, sniffing out the blood.

"Dammit!" Someone yelled from not far off. Logan perked up at the recognition of his southern belle's voice. "Boy, you are ten kinds of stupid." It continued.

There was a light chuckling and Logan turned to find Rogue stalking out of the rubble tucked under the arm of one Cajun. No- not tucked- supporting him by hauling his arm over her shoulder. He limped along by her side, smudged with dirt and blood, but still grinning like a fool, so Logan took that as a sign that he was fine and still a jackass.

"Well, _chere_," He smirked at her, trying to walk on his own, but collapsing back into her grip. "That's what people tell me."

"What happened?" Angel asked as he touched down next to the two of them. Kitty and Pete materialized by his side not long after that.

"We ran into the guy. What was his name? Riptide?" Rogue said turning her head to Gambit.

"Yeah." Gambit's mood darkened visibly. "Riptide."

"Did you know him?" Rogue looked at the man with a little gleam in her eye that Logan had seen there once before. That little gleam led that girl to a year of running. That little gleam needed to be stamped out _as soon as possible._

"Once upon a time, when Remy was a bad, bad man." Gambit answered Rogue, wrapping a stray lock of white hair around his fingers, completely unaware that Logan was debating the pros and cons of stabbing him again.

"Stop it." Rogue smacked his hand out of her hair and he yelped with pain dramatically.

"You can't be mean to me right now," Remy scolded her. "I just blew up half a building to save your life. In fact, I think I deserve a kiss." He smirked at her suggestively.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure," She said sarcastically. "Then we can add coma to the list of things that you should go to the hospital for."

"I ain't goin' to a hospital, woman." Gambit growled.

"Sorry to interrupt," Warren smirked at the two and then at the mountain of destruction. "But do we know if this Riptide guy is still alive or not?"

"Well," Gambit sighed heavily. "If he's alive he's gone already. And if he's dead someone's going to clone his sorry ass, or he's going to crawl out of his grave, or get hit with radioactive waves reflecting off the surface of Mars and not only comes back from the dead but has fun new exciting powers to kill people with, because _something like that always happens."_

Everyone surrounding him nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about. It was silently agreed that there was really nothing more they could do there, and they should pack it up before authorities showed up.

"You guys sure know how to throw a party." Gambit mused as he leaned back in his chair aboard the X-jet. "I knew it was a good idea to stick around here." He winked at Rogue, casually tossing his arm over her shoulders, careful not to put too much pressure on her side.

The rest of the ride lapsed into a smear of silence and brooding for Remy as he contemplated what this particular venture was going to mean for him in the long run.

He had lost sleep over _it._Uncountable hours he had spent staring into darkness, wishing to take _it_ back. He had done stupid things because of _it._He'd tried to force karma's hand into exterminating him.

Instead, karma saw fit for a different type of punishment entirely. And that punishment was beautiful, sassy, vulnerable, strong, and completely untouchable.

Karma's a bit of a bitch.


	9. Chapter 9

_JAMIE: *gives you whiplash from her speedy updating skills* That is all._

_

* * *

_

"No." Remy said resolutely, not for the first time.

"Remy!" Storm was this close to strangling him. "Just get into the med lab!"

"Not gon' happen, Stormy." He pretended not to wince as he crossed his arms over his chest. Rogue was watching him curiously, sitting off to the side, already healed up thanks to Logan. "I ain't goin' down to any place with 'weapon', 'x' or 'lab' in de name."

"Don't make me do anything that would scare the younger students." Storm warned. A group of teens and children had crowded in the foyer, confused about who the knew man was and why exactly he had chosen to pick a fight with the Headmistress.

"Oh please." Remy scoffed. "Y' couldn' scare dem if y' took off y'r make up."

Everyone in the room gasped and giggled at the newcomer's bold move.

Storm stopped whatever snappy response and lightning blot that were about to come flying out of her and listened, _really _listened to what he had just said. Ororo was pretty damn sure that the word 'them' started with a 'th' not a 'd'. 'Couldn't' had a 't' on the end, didn't it? And 'you' definitely had two other letters in it that Remy was neglecting.

Remy hadn't spoken out loud with an accent so thickly since he had hunted down Ororo about three years ago, practically looming at death's doorstep and obviously haunted by some ghost. That had been the last time she had seen him.

"Remy…" Storm moved closer to him, carefully placing her hands on his shoulders so that they would avoid the quickly darkening splotches there. "Are you alright?"

Her quick change of heart must have registered in Remy's empathy and he looked at her with hurt eyes.

"I'll be fine, Stormy." His hard outer shell quickly slid on, hiding his eyes behind the signature glint they usually held. He walked out of her hands. "Remy always is." He gave her an ambiguous two-fingered wave as he limped away.

_Liar. _Storm watched him leave. Rogue hesitated a moment long enough for him to disappear before following after him down the hallway and Ororo felt her heart sink into her stomach.

Remy was going to hurt that girl. Intentionally or not.

Storm tried to remember the last time she had seen Remy. He had been yelling at her for medical supplies, pressing the remains of what had probably been a nice shirt over the gaping hole in his chest. Storm hadn't asked questions. Remy hadn't given her any answers.

He'd do the same with Rogue.

And not having answers could kill a person.

She shook her head and the set her attentions on shooing away the students. "There's nothing to see here." She barked playfully.

"Not anymore." One of the blond teens smirked, casting her gaze down the hall Remy had just disappeared. "Too bad Poison Touch is after him. When'd she get back?"

"Emma." Storm pointed out the blond. "Extra Danger Room session. Tomorrow morning. Five a.m. We don't insult or sneer at people's gifts."

Emma Frost rolled her eyes and muttered something about 'freaks getting all of the attention at the Institute nowadays. '

"With Logan." Storm added. Emma blanched and Ororo felt content to leave the girl there with her dread.

* * *

Rogue wandered down one of the hallways that seemed to have grown since she had last been in the place. 'Ro had let her borrow one of her sun dresses, cheerful blues, pinks, and purples were draped across her figure in an appealing swirl of loose fabric… it clashed slightly with the black leggings she had stolen from Jubilee and Logan's leather jacket, but, she'd take what she could get. She was still wearing the gloves that went with her uniform because the leathery ones that she had been wearing for the past four months had finally given their last hurrah when she'd leapt from the motorcycle Remy had been driving and collided with the gravel.

She bit her lip shyly as she wandered, the very thought of Remy causing the slightly amount of blood to pool in her cheeks. She admitted she already had a fondness for the boy. Maybe 'fondness' was too light of a word. She'd known him for almost a day she found herself in near-dependence on him. She had never met anyone like him. He had taken a girl off the streets, taken her home, and stuck around for some reason. He had saved her life more than once. And he made her feel pretty. Even after he had found out about her mutation and continued to flirt and tease her.

_Isn't a shame that no matter how much he flirts with you he'll leave you high and dry for the first touchable girl that saunters his way? _A voice mumbled in the back of her head.

Rogue stopped dead.

_That's not true…_ She tried to argue with the voice.

_Right, because every boy is just dying to get himself tied to an untouchable girl._ The voice retorted sarcastically. _So, it's not just _him, _it's anyone. No one is every going to want you. _

Rogue gasped with the sudden pain of heartache and want piercing her breast. She stumbled into the wall and labored to breathe.

More whispers shot up in the back of her mind.

_Take a deep breath, child. _She singled out the calmest voice to tune into. _Sit down for a moment if you don't think you are going to be able to make the journey back to your own room. _It suggested.

She decided that that was a lot better for her health than trying to talk to Remy.

Curling up into a ball beside the wall, all Rogue could do to keep from breaking down into sobs was press her knees into her eyelids until the blackness of her vision started to turn into flashing techno colors.

_Calm down, child. _The voice that was normally reserved for forceful speeches and hate filled declarations made a wonderful fatherly voice when it wanted to. _It will all be alright._

And for a moment, one, single, solitary, blissful moment, she believed him.

Then the other voices started to add their two cents.

_You're just a freak, Marie. You stole my life._

_Calm down, kid. Stay calm._

_I still love you, Marie. What I did with Kitty, that was nothing. I can make things alright._

_What the ice prick is trying to say is, you're hot. You'll make it._

_Rogue, you should not be listening to simple minded man. Please be staying calm._

_Only a freak would listen to the voices in her head. No wonder they rejected you._

_Child, calm down._

_Whatever-his-name-is doesn't want you. Who would?_

"Rogue?"

_No one._

Shut up.

"Rogue?"

_Freak!_

Be quiet!"Rogue!"

_Leech._

Rogue's eyes snapped open.

* * *

Remy stripped off his coat and took one long, good look at the mass of bruises that used to qualify as his chest.

"Well…" He looked himself over and mopped up a small percentage of the blood that had smeared down from his shoulder. Taking a deep, manly breath, he tore a bone spike out of his shoulder.

"Mother_murph_Sonofa_goddamn_arr!" He clenched his teeth against the pain. "_Merde!" _The spike clattered to the ground, coated with a good amount of blood. "If I ever see that _batard _again, I'm going to break his neck." He swore, panting heavily.

Tearing apart a pack of gauze with his teeth and still muttering curses in his own special brand of gutter French, He barely registered the waves of emotions coming from the hallway right outside of the bedroom he was occupying.

Until, said set of emotions roared out of control.

Remy crumpled to his knees, crying out in pain.

_Want, Longing, Realization._

They slammed into him with such strength that he had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming. Unconsciously, his fingers groped around for a deck of cards. Something solid he could channel all of the overwhelming waves enveloping him. Before his fingers could find something to release energy into, the emotions calmed enough that he could not only recognize the origin but react accordingly.

Rogue.

He tore out of the room, forgetting his bloody bandages and pain next to the bloody spike.

There was a huddled bundle of shivering girl at the other edge of the hallway. She seemed to be calming down from whatever episode she had just had. Her breathing became slowly more steady.

_Hate. Concern. Hate. Rejection. Mockery. Rationality. Pain. Hate._

Remy collapsed to the ground again, screaming. How could she be feeling so many overpowering emotions all at once? It was almost as if there was more than one person in the inside of her head.

He crawled forward slowly until he was face to face with her. He grabbed her gloved hands in his and squeezed them reassuringly.

Wolverine and Storm tore around the corner, probably hearing his screams.

"What happened?" Logan yelled, all at once it sounded like a concerned question and an accusation. His fists already had claws protruding out of them and his eyes were filled with such concern when he saw Rogue, Remy expected him to pick her up and run as quickly as he could down to the med lab. "What did you do?" He snarled at Remy.

_Loathing._

Remy and Rogue cried out in pain at the same exact instance, clawing at their ears like there were invisible pests trying to disturb the sanctity of their thoughts.

"Dere are too many feelings!" Remy writhed. "Make dem stop!"

Logan was just driven farther into confusion, but Ororo understood immediately. She knelt down by Rogue's side and gently put her hand on the younger woman's shoulder.

"Rogue?"

Her eyes were shut. Lights around the house started dimming.

"Rogue?"

Her body was shaking violently. The window next to her started cracking.

Then, everything stopped. Rogue stopped moving, breathing, shaking, feeling.

"Rogue!"

Rogue's eyes snapped open. Pitch black.

The lights blew out and the windows shattered.

"Darlin'," Logan put his hand on the back of her head in a comforting gesture. "Whatever it is, it will be okay. I need ya' to calm down, kid."

Rogue's finger's twitched slightly and Logan went crashing into the wall.

"Rogue, honey," Storm tried to make eye contact with the disturbed girl. "Please-."

Another twitch, another crash.

Rogue's bundled body started to lift off the floor, odd waves of energy contorting around her. Her unique hair lifted off of her neck and swirled around in the new paths the air was taking around her.

"_Chere," _Remy said calmly. "_Chere, _please come back to Remy. I don' know what's wrong, but I ain't gon' figure it out by myself. You have to tell me, _chere."_

He could hear the strain of the stitches in her gloves as she clenched her fists.

"_Leave." _She gritted out in a voice that didn't sound like her own.

"I ain't goin' anywhere." He ground back.

"Do you promise?" Her hair started to settle back on her shoulders.

"Y'r gonna havta work harder than this t' get rid of me." Remy assured her, still working to get a handle on her emotions.

She made contact with the ground again, but her eyes were still black.

"Do you trust me?" He put his gloved hand on her bare face.

She blinked and Remy discovered that they eyes he had initially thought were black were just layers of colors. Blues, browns and the odds in between.

Slowly, she blinked her way out of all of them.

"W-what did Ah do?" She looked around, nearly driving herself to hysterics again. Remy snuffed out any emotion that wasn't under control with his empathy as he quickly folded her into his arms and let her cry herself to sleep there.

"Shh," He soothed, running his hand along her beautiful two-toned hair. "I promise y', _chere, _I won' let anythin' hurt y'."

* * *

Riptide smirked, looking on the scene with a twisted smile from one of the surrounding walls of the Institute, successfully hidden from prying eyes and security cameras alike.

He smoothly drew out his cellphone and punched in a number he knew by heart.

"I found him." He affirmed to the voice on the other end. "But there's something else here that I think might interest you."

The strange girl with the brown and white hair cried into Gambit's shoulder under his gaze.

"No, I don't think I can take her without his help." Riptide said to whatever the voice had responded. "He seems to be able to control her pretty well. Better than anyone else in that house, anyway."

Riptide winced at whatever the voice had to say. "I don't know…" Riptide drawled, looking over the broken glass and shorted out lights. Every single one in the entire mansion was gone. "I think she'd be worth it."


	10. Chapter 10

Whether because she was completely emotionally exhausted or because of some sort of sedative she assumed she had been pumped full of after nearly destroying the mansion, Rogue's sleep was dreamless. A fact that she was more grateful for than words could describe. She was so tired of waking up with a life that wasn't hers playing behind her eyes.

Maybe she should ask Hank for more.

Then again, she would probably get addicted too fast.

"Roguey?" Someone's voice pierced her void.

Rogue groaned faintly and opened her eyes. Fire and coal eyes were staring right back at her.

"Ah!" She started, throwing her now completely aware body against the wall and making sure that every patch of bare skin on her body was covered up in a spastic flurry of movements.

The same string of French apologies he seemed to always have ready at his lips when he was dealing with her slipped out and he reached out to help steady her.

She winced away.

"I'm sorry. I just-…" She looked around. She was in the med bay. …Remy was in the med bay… Remy was in the med bay? "What?" She said out loud.

He gave her a look.

"What do you mean 'What'?"

"Why are you here?" She said defensively. Why was he still around her? "Where's Logan?" She asked before he could respond. She wanted Logan. She wanted a conversation consisting of grunts and the mutual understanding that life sucks. She wanted to get away from those damn midnight valentine eyes.

"Please, Rogue," Remy tried to say something, reaching out and putting his bare hand on her gloved one.

"Don't touch me!" Rogue panicked. "You shouldn't be near me!" Why was he pushing it? He saw what she did! He should stay as far away from her as possible.

Now, there were three things Logan prided himself on and they were 1.) The claws, 2.) The snappy one-liners he delivered in battle usually ending with the word 'bub', and 3.) His ability to time an entrance.

"Don't touch her." He leaned against the doorway. His voice was firm.

Rogue pulled herself away from the wall, skillfully avoiding Gambit's frozen body, and running up into Logan's arms.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled into his chest.

"It's alright, kid." Logan stroked her hair.

"Remy…" Storm cooed from the doorway. "Come on, let's go get some dinner."

Remy took a moment to glance at Rogue, he knew she could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't turn to meet them.

"Sure." He said, shrugging. He remembered saying to Logan that he would stick around until Rogue told him she didn't want him around anymore. Though she hadn't directly said she didn't want him around anymore it did sound like he should be packing his bags. He sighed once and turned to Ororo.

"Good," Ororo perked up, taking his elbow and leading him forward out of that damn med lab. "The students are very excited to meet you."

Remy rolled his eyes.

Children.

Remy LeBeau and children were a bad mix.

* * *

Rogue kept herself tucked into Logan's chest for a long few minutes, slowly gaining control of the tears in her eyes. Logan let her stay there, comfortably wrapping his arms around her and humming soothing songs despite himself and his 'feral' ways.

He would never _ever _admit it out loud, but he genuinely loved that girl like his own child. He had no idea what had made him so protective of this one girl, but she reminded him of himself. And he wanted to protect her from that.

Eventually, she pulled away and wiped at the wetness on her face.

"You alright?" He looked down at her, concerned.

"What did I do?" Her eyes filled with tears.

"You just had a little episode," Logan assured her. "Kinda like that time I almost killed Jean the first time I woke up here. 'Member?"

Rogue gave a watery giggle. "Yeah…" She mused.

"What drove you over the edge?" Logan asked.

Rogue sighed, planting her butt back down on the cold steel table. "They were yellin' at meh." She shook her head. "They called me a freak." Her throat started to constrict with tears. "They called me a _leech._"

"Shh," Logan soothed, sitting next to her. "It wasn't your fault, kid. If anything, we should blame Gambit."

Rogue was confused for a moment. "Why?"

"I don't know, but he wasn't wearing a shirt when we found him next to you, and that's good enough of a reason for me." He said resolutely.

Rogue laughed, probably for the first time in a year. "Well, I don't think you're going to have to worry about him anymore." Rogue said.

"I get that he can't touch you." Logan said, misconstruing her words. "But I don't trust the sneaky bastard."

"Aw, come on," Rogue nudged him with her elbow. "You said earlier that you changed your mind about him."

"That was when he was punching Bobby in the face." Logan said, smiling at the memory. "The awe has faded."

Rogue laughed again. The sound was an entirely welcome relief to the sobs that had been escaping her chest earlier.

"How long have I been out?" She asked suddenly.

"Long time." Logan supplied that remarkably unhelpful estimation.

"Long enough for everyone to replace the lights." She looked up at the ceiling.

He nodded. "It only took a couple of minutes. What's the use of having a house full of kids that can fly, levitate shit, and generate electricity with their goddamn minds if you can't employ some slave labor now and again?"

Again, with the laughter thing.

Rogue rolled her eyes and her stomach growled.

"Long time, huh?" She teased. "I think we should go get some dinner."

He nodded curtly and helped her down from the table before slinging his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her close to his chest as they walked down to the elevator to take them to the upper floor.

"Oh no!" Three obnoxious little boys pretended to cower against the wall when they passed. "Back up, she'll suck us dry!"

The resonating growl of Logan's snarl was effective in the terms that there were three little boys who desperately needed to change their shorts.

Rogue couldn't help but chuckle a little bit.

They rounded the corner to the cafeteria, where a good percent of the student and teacher population would be for dinner and they both stopped dead in their steps.

… "What the hell?" They said in unison.

"Oh…" One of the children, Rahne, crawled out from behind an overturned table. "Hi… uh… He started it!" She pointed at Remy, who seemed to be the only clean person in the room.

"What?" He glared at the little girl. "Nu-uh!"

* * *

"Remy…" Storm cooed from the doorway. "Come on, let's go get some dinner."

"Sure." He said, shrugging.

"Good," Ororo perked up, taking his elbow and leading him forward out of that damn med lab. "The students are very excited to meet you."

Remy rolled his eyes.

He nodded his head again to appease her.

"Stop sulking." Storm smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Ow!" Remy pretended to be deeply wounded. "Don' be hittin' Remy." He straightened up. "I'm as fragile as a peach."

"Hmm." Storm shot him an amused look. "Were as fragile as a peach when you tackled Henri to the ground and tore your-."

"We don't talk about that." Remy cut in.

Storm chuckled to herself.

"And to our left we have the Cafeteria!" She announced like a tour guide.

"Yippee." Remy pretended to be excited.

"Come on." It was Ororo's turn to roll her eyes as she pulled him forward. He broke away from her as she went to go get some food out of the line and nearly ran over a small redheaded girl. The little girl fell to the ground.

"Sorry, _petit."_ Remy smiled at her and bent over to help her up.

She kicked him in the shin. "I don't need help! I'm a big girl!" She snarled.

"Goddammit!" Remy cursed under his breath, clutching his leg. The little girl packed a punch.

She gasped. "You said a bad word!"

"Did not." Remy said indignantly, bending over at the waist to be eye-to-eye with the girl. People around the room started staring.

"Did too!" She crossed her arms. "I heard it."

"It was more of a prayer." Remy dismissed her logic. "And trust me, when y've heard some of de creative words I have, it sounds more an' more like holy speech evr'y day."

"Your accent's funny." She sniffed in the face of defeat.

"Says you," Remy stuck out his tongue at her.

"Didn' your mum ever teach you how to treat a lady?" She stuck her tongue out right back at him.

"Y' ain't a lady." Remy retorted. "Y'r a_fillette."_

"Hey!" A new voice interrupted. Remy turned from his spat with a little girl to an only slightly larger boy. "Don't be mean to her." He demanded, taking what could count as an eight-year-old's fighting stance.

"_She's_ beingmean." Remy cried. "I was just trying to help her up."

"I don't need your help, Jamie!" The little girl barked at her would-be savior.

"Yeah," Remy backed her up. "She's a big girl. Y' know, not every girl out there needs to get saved."

"Exactly." She seemed pleased with his logic.

"Besides," Remy winked at Jamie. "She's way out of your league."

Obviously this struck a nerve with the child, he charged forward. Obviously, Remy wasn't about to get into a fist fight with an eight year old, so he simply stepped out of the small path of anger. Jamie tripped and fell to the ground, and suddenly there were five Jamies. And they were all very angry with Remy.

"_Merde." _Remy rolled his eyes to the heavens as he was tackled to the ground by five little bodies. "Ah! No biting!" He tossed one of them to the side, still struggling with the other four. He preformed a slightly hindered back flip and they all fell off.

The Jamies hit the ground and fractured in to even more Jamies.

"_God. Dammit." _Remy looked around. The entire cafeteria was very confused.

"Hey!" The little red head said again. "That wasn't very nice. And you said _another _bad word!"

"Technically it was the same one." Remy pointed out. "Now, please, call off y'r boyfriend!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" She shouted before morphing into a little wolf and advancing on him in the same line as the many Jamies. They all pounced at once.

Ororo was adding a salad to her plate, humming to herself lightly because she was in such a good mood when Remy crashed through the wall to her right, covered with little Jamies and being hounded by what looked like a little red dog.

"Remy!" Storm fell backwards with the momentum. "What are you doing?"

"Winning!" Remy shouted, extending his staff and knocking off the excess Jamies before flipping over the counter that had all the food on it. "HAHA!" He crowed, charging the counter.

_This can only go bad places. _Storm thought before being pummeled by mashed potatoes. Similar instances occurred throughout the cafeteria as the majority of the mutants of the Xavier Institute found themselves covered with food items.

Remy crossed his arms, pleased with himself as the few dozen people in the room sat shocked, covered in soups and various other menu items.

"That was so awesome!" The one and only Jamie screamed, covered in steak sauce. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"It's an acquired skill, kiddo." Remy smiled. "No hard feelings?" He held out his hand to the little boy.

"Only if you give me tips on how to get Rahne to go out with me." Jamie said.

"Y' drive a hard bargain." Remy nodded, not minding the kid now that there was only one of them.

Jamie flashed him a smile that was missing a few major teeth and shook his hand. Remy turned just in time to see Rogue and Logan walk in. Remy couldn't help but notice that Rogue allowed Logan to put his arm around her shoulders.

They both looked around the room for a moment with the same exact expression on their faces.

Remy put his hands over Jamie's little ears.

… "What the hell?" They said in perfect unison.

The little red head wiggled her way out from underneath a table. "Oh…Hi…uh…" She looked up at the very agitated Wolverine. Her finger shot out in Remy's direction. "He started it!"

"What?" Tattle tale! "Nu-uh!"


	11. Chapter 11

Remy looked properly abashed, but not enough so for Storm's liking.

"Sorry I blew up your cafeteria, Stormy." He mumbled into his chest, looking down at the ground like a scorned puppy. He really should have angled down his face more because Ororo could still see his grin.

"Don't call me 'Stormy'. You're going to clean the _entire _cafeteria!" She snapped and as she was about to say something else when fourteen little bodies came crashing into her office. Well, technically, it was only one body, replicated fourteen times.

"Mr. Gambit!" Jamie wailed. "I need help! Me and Rahne keep trying the cool flip you did and I keep falling. And Miss Rogue was trying to help, but Rahne was there and she kept laughing at me when I fell." He stomped his feet.

"Jamie," Storm spoke. "Mr. Gambit can't come help you right now. He's in a lot of trouble for blowing up the cafeteria and ruining my favorite shirt."

"Aw, come on," Jamie whined. All of them. In unison. "Pleeeeeeee-"

Remy and Ororo exchanged looks.

"eeeeeeeeeeee-"

"He's gotta run out of air sometime."

"eeeeeeeeeeee-"

"Or maybe not…"

"eeeeeeeeeeeee-"

"Good lord! Before the boy passes out, Stormy!"

"eeee-"

"Fine!" Ororo put her fingers to her temples, wondering how many bottles of asprin it would take to make the trains of 'eeee' go away. Jamie leaped up in the air with excitement and started dragging Remy out the door. The spare Jamies disappeared. "This doesn't mean you're off the hook!" She called after them. "I'll think of something!"

Remy laughed and waved back at her as the surprisingly strong force of Jamie dragged him forward.

"I think she's mad at me." Jamie said.

"Dis Rahne girl of yours?" Remy asked.

"Yeah." Jamie nodded like a bobble head, leading him forward through the complicated maze of hallways to where Remy was assuming Rahne and Rogue were. "She won't talk to me anymore. She keeps trying to avoid me and I don't know why." He sounded very frustrated. "I thought she liked me. She was holding my hand yesterday. But, now, she won't even be in the same room as me."

Remy wasn't one to not take affairs of the heart seriously. Love was a serious game. A gamble. Hell, if eight-year-olds were mature enough to try and sort out the damn complicated puzzle that came with it, physically mature people could take a stab at it now and again.

Remy was an expert on creating love. Flirting. He was good with sparks.

Not so much with the long term stuff.

And he hoped to _God _that eight-year-old's weren't looking for 'sparks'.

He involuntarily grimaced.

"Are you alright?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah," Remy tried to cover up his gag with a smile.

"You are going to help me get her to be my girlfriend still, right?" Jamie looked up at him with pitiful eyes.

"O'course, _petit_." Remy assured him as he was dragged into another room. There were several things different about this room compared to the other rooms he had just been led through. First, it was much larger, not only in volume but the scant furniture left a lot of floor space, and it was much larger in appearance as well. Second, there were people in this one.

Rogue laughed slightly as she bent over the collapsed form of Rahne.

"Sweetie, you gotta keep your arms stiffer when you try to stand on them." She helped up the smaller girl. "And you're trying to hard to avoid the ground. The ground's gonna come to meet ya one way or another, the trick is to be prepared for it."

Remy liked the way the light from the window was caught in the white bits of her hair when she bent over and the unconscious curve of her lips as she watched Rahne attempt a crude gymnastic move.

"Miss Rogue!" Jamie made their presence known a great deal sooner than Remy would have liked. "I brought Mr. Gambit to come help!"

Rogue looked up, startled.

"He promised me earlier that he'd help me, so I went and got him." Jamie puffed up his chest, obviously impressed with his own initiative. He didn't seem to notice that Rogue hadn't acknowledge him yet. Her pure green eyes were stuck in Remy's tainted black ones.

"Are y' alright, _chere?" _Remy moved forward to put a hand on her shoulder.

She pulled away jerkily.

"Don't touch me." She backed up. "Please, just stay away." He could see the cold barrier of tears in her eyes as she groped the wall behind her for a door knob. She found it and tore out of the room.

Remy was about to follow her when there was a sharp pain in his knee.

_GODDAMMIT._

"Meanie." Rahne spat, kicking him a second time for good measure before shooting Jamie a glare and stalking out after Rogue. The urge to strangle her, however, stayed with Remy.

Jamie stomped his feet. "You see! She won't even talk to me!"

"Here's what you gotta do." Remy turned to him, eyes still on the door. "Find out what the hell the _femme _is mad about. _Do not _let her try an' shake y' just because she's stubborn. She was holding your hand yesterday, that's gotta count for something, right?"

It took a few moments for Jamie to recover from the use of 'hell' in a daily sentence. "Alrigh-"

"Gambit!" Kitty fell through the wall, breathing heavily with a bright smile on her face and confusion in her eyes. "Have you seen Rogue? Bobby just woke up and he asked for her."

Without thinking, Remy pointed out the door Rogue had just taken off through.

"Thanks! You're, like, the best! She's totally gonna flip when he asks her out again!" She laughed before dashing out of the door.

Jamie and Remy stood alone in the room for a few minutes.

"Also." Remy added. "If y' ever get a chance to kill a handsy bastard that's trying to steal your woman and settle for breaking his nose in stead, just go the extra mile and worry about hiding the body later."


	12. Chapter 12

_Hey dearies! I am sad to say that this might be the last you hear from me in a little while. Jamie has been grounded. Why? She may or may not be failing English. (Analytical writing can. Kiss. My. Ass.) So the 'rents have stepped in and decided the best way to solve this is to take away Tamara. Logic?_

_Ah well, I'll be back in a week or two!_

_Alos, I rewrote this chapter SEVEN times. 7! 1234567. That's a lot of frikkin writing for one (still lame) chapter. I hope you appreciate my labor of love!_

* * *

Piotr watched darkly as Kitty dragged Rogue down the stairs.

"Ah don' undahstand what this is all about, Kitty." Rogue yowled, her accent showing her irritation.

Piotr, on the other hand, knew exactly what this was about. Bobby had been plotting it ever since Rogue had left. Kitty had been dragged into his scheme by a guilt trip he sent her on, convincing her that it was her fault Rogue left.

Fortunately, Piotr and Jubilee had prepared for such an event.

Piotr walked forward resolutely, keeping an even pace even when he dropped his shoulder so that it was level with Rogue's hips and hauling her away with him as Jubilee popped her hand in front of Kitty's face so that the younger girl was stunned enough she couldn't respond.

"Interception!" Jubilee whooped, flashing a few complicated hand gestures at a now unseeing Kitty.

"Where am I going now?" Rogue was very close to whining, trying to fight her way off of Piotr's shoulder. "The people in this school are so weird."

"I believe that is the entire point of the school." Piotr said smartly, friendly smile on his face despite the fact Rogue couldn't see it from her position on his shoulder.

Piotr never wanted anyone to be hurt, but felt especially responsible for Rogue. If he had told her about Kitty and Bobby before she had walked into that room, he felt like he could have gotten her to stay, like he could have spared her from the last year of pain. In a way he felt responsible, and he wanted to make things good again.

"You still haven't told me where we're going." Rogue pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest and letting her head fall so that she was staring at the floor as the Russian walked away with her.

"Jubilee and I are going to be taking you to get some new clothing." Piotr said. Ororo had suggested that they get her outside and take her to get some necessary things.

"S-shopping?" Rogue stuttered. "With Jubilee?"

"Yes."

"Let meh down! Somebody! Help!" She began struggling ferociously against him. "Injustice!" She cried when Piotr just tightened his grip around her waist. "They're forcing me to go _shopping!"_

"Oh, calm down, chica." Jubilee laughed from where she was trailing behind Piotr and Rogue. "You know how much I love me some shopping!"

"SHE'S TRYING TO TAKE ME SHOPPING! HEEEELP!" Rogue screeched at the top of her voice.

"Owie." Jubilee clamped her hands over her ears.

"Please be calming down, Rogue." Piotr said diplomatically. "If you would like, we could ask Gambit to come along with us." He offered.

Her body went stiff on his shoulder.

"No!" She sounded mortified.

"Woohoo… What's this?" Jubilee sounded intrigued by the latest development. "Trouble in Gambittown? What'd he do?"

"Nothing!" Rogue was quick to defend him.

"Then why don't you want him to come?" Jubilee was obviously perplexed. "You two looked pretty cozy yesterday." She winked suggestively.

"It's complicated." Rogue said and Piotr could feel her finally go completely limp, giving up on fighting him.

"Ah well, more for me." Jubilee chuckled deviously.

Piotr could tell from the tenseness of Rogue's body that she didn't like that way that sounded.

"Still, I am thinking that we should bring some male other than myself." Piotr said. "I am no good with picking out clothing for women."

"I'll go get him!" Jubilee crowed, taking off down the hallway before Rogue could get her gloves off and kill her.

Jubilee chuckled to herself, passing a Kitty that was rubbing her eyes painfully, zapping her again, and running off down one of the halls searching for Gambit. Why was Rogue being so weird about him? The man was _smokin'._And he seemed to genuinely want to get closer to Rogue, even rebuffing a few Jubilee-flavored advances.

_But,_the _last_guy who had been that way kinda maybe betrayed her and made her run away from home and made her live on the streets and… You know, maybe Rogue should be second guessing Gambit.

"Y'see, these are called Tension Wrenches, and they are essential in picking any lock with an inner cylinder." She heard from one of the rooms. She turned in to see Gambit sitting with one of the younger students, Jamie, with a rolled out set of tools in front of them. He was pointing out one of the 'L' shaped tools.

"I thought you said the Half-Diamond Pick was the most essential." Jamie said, bewildered by the conversation.

"_Non,_I said it was the _simplest._" Gambit corrected gently.

"_Ohh…_"

Jubilee didn't really want to dwell on what exactly Gambit was telling the child, or on how exactly this conversation got started, so she just cut in.

"Hey Gambit," Gambit turned to her expectantly, not at all surprised by her presence for some reason. "Me and Pete were taking Rogue to the mall, do you want to come too?"

He looked confused for a moment. "Does she want me to come?"

Jubilee's smile became forced. "Yeah."

"You're a bad liar, _petite._" He stood and ruffled Jamie's hair. "I guess I'll go." He paused. "Was she the one who was just screaming about shopping?"

Jubilee shrugged and gave him an 'It's a long story' look and Remy just accepted it for the moment as a question he wasn't going to get a logical answer to. He followed her down the hallway after collecting his tool set and saying a quick goodbye to Jamie, who was growing on him.

"Wasn't she going to talk with Bobby?" Remy asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He was going to wait until the jackass made his move, see how Rogue responded, and then respond accordingly.

"Well…" Jubilee laughed a little nervously as they passed Kitty kneading her eyes in the middle of the hallway.

"Do I want to know?" He asked seriously.

"Like, when I can see again Jubes, I will end you!" Kitty swore, running into a wall.

"Bye Kitty!" Jubilee called cheerily as she bounced past her.

Remy decided he _didn't_ actually want to know.

They rounded another corner to see the tall Russian arguing with the significantly smaller figure that had been tossed over his broad shoulder.

"But Pete!" The figure complained and Remy took a moment to appreciate the view of her backside. "You _know_how she gets when I let her take me shopping!"

"Would you rather walk around without clothes?" The metal man shot back with a grin.

She considered this.

"Can you put me down now?" She asked.

"Are you going to run?" Piotr replied.

"Like Seabiscuit."

"No."

"Damn you."

"Come _on_ people," Jubilee shouted impatiently, donning a yellow jacket that made Remy think his eyes were going to bleed. "We have shopping to do!"

Rogue groaned and peeked over the side of Piotr's wide chest to look at Remy. Her face was red from hanging upside down so Remy wasn't sure if when her face turned redder she was blushing or not.

"Hello, _chere._" He tried to keep his voice neutral, stance uncaring. "'M liking the view." He commented.

She was definitely blushing now.

"Pete! Put me down!" She demanded, struggling with new found vigor while trying to cover up her back side.

"I could carry her." Remy offered smugly.

Rogue swore. "I can't win in this situation, can I?"

"Not with Logan out for the rest of the day, you can't." Jubilee shot back, ushering everyone out the door.

Rogue was very acutely aware of four things at the moment- That all the blood in her body was about to explode out of her eyes if she stayed upside down any longed, that Piotr's shoulder was a very uncomfortable place to be slung, that Jubilee was not going to stop in her quest to get Rogue to wear a dress until the universe ended, and that Remy was shamelessly checking out her ass.

How had this happened?

One moment she was talking to Kitty, the next, Piotr had snatched her up, Jubilee had blinded Kitty and screeched something about an 'Interception'. What on earth was going on?

Pete tossed her into the passenger's seat of one of Mr. Summers' old cars and searched his person for a moment when he circled around to the driver's side.

"I could have sworn I had keys on me when I left." He checked his pockets again. Rogue would have tried to escape, but Jubilee was leaning against the door.

"Mind if I drive, _homme?"_Remy twirled the keys around in his fingers.

"Oh… I must have dropped them." The Russian smiled lightly, it wasn't like him to misplace things. "I would not be minding if you drove." He took a seat in the back and Jubilee finally relented her post at Rogue's door to take the seat behind her.

"You make a move and I'll zap you eyes out." She warned from behind Rogue's head. Rogue wasn't about to test Jubilee's love of shopping against her love of seeing.

Remy chuckled from where he sat, slamming the car into gear and taking off down the long driveway like he was in a drag race.

"Good Lord, boy!" Jubilee clutched at the upholstery. "Where did you learn to drive?"

"Get away cars." Remy laughed, taking a corner at sixty. Everyone was thrown against the side of the car.

"Make it go slower!" Rogue demanded, gripping the 'oh shit' handle like her life depended on it.

"Aw, _chere,_you're no fun." He pouted, but didn't make a move to make the car go slower.

"So you've told me." She gasped as the tires screeched against the asphalt when he started to go _faster._"Is that it? Do you just do these things to piss me off?" She asked, covering her eyes as he swerved around oncoming traffic.

"So you admit that y'r pissed." He shot back. "Why?"

"It doesn't matter why." She bit off. "What matters is that you keep your distance."

"Metaphorically or literally?"

"Both." She growled. Could one die of overexposure to angry car horns and rude hand gestures coming from other drivers?

The car sped up.

"What if I don' want to?" He asked.

"Then you're gonna get the life sucked out of you." Her fingernails dug little holes in the seat as they narrowly avoided collision.

"On purpose or accident?"

She shot him a death glare, tearing her eyes away from the road. Why was he pushing this? Wasn't he smart enough to know when to leave things alone?

"Hey, it was just a question. Jus' trying to find pieces to the puzzle." He smiled at her, not breaking eye contact.

"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!" Jubilee screamed, covering up her own eyes as a truck nearly clipped the side of the car.

"Oops," Remy allowed, laughing as he made the car swerve into another lane.

"I'm gonna die…" Jubilee whined.

"Y' didn't answer my question, _chere,_" The car accelerated faster. "Would you drain me on purpose or on accident?"

"It doesn't matter." She growled. "You'd be dead just the same."

"It matters to me." He said gently, which was a drastic contrast to the obscenities being shouted at them from the outside world.

"You still won't be able to touch me if I tell you." She snarled. "It. Doesn't. Matter."

The car accelerated again.

"I think it does." He snipped back.

"No it doesn't."

Faster.

"Yes."

"No!"

Even faster.

"Just tell him before he kills us all!" Jubilee shouted.

Rogue crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.

"It's a simple question, _chere."_Remy said. "On purpose or on accident?" He repeated.

"Accident." She said, a few tears collecting in her eyes. "It's always an accident, but it always happens. I don't want to hurt you."

The car slowly inched back to a normal pace, the screams and blaring horns faded away to nonexistence as he started obeying traffic laws. The car rolled to a stop at the mall entrance, completely unscathed. He got out at a leisurely pace, circled around the front of the car, opened her door and helped her out.

"Accidents happen, Rogue." He said to her, his ruby eyes meeting her emerald ones. "Even if they cripple you, you have to learn to walk with a limp, because they aren't going away. You just have to hope that maybe you can find a cane."

"Are you offering to be my 'cane'?" Rogue asked him suspiciously.

"_Oui._" He smiled at her, picking up her gloved fingers and kissing them individually. "Cane, friend, whatever you want."

"Friend." She said quickly.

He smirked and his eyes sparked with mischief. "For now." He drawled, taking her hand and leading her forward towards the front doors.

Jubilee crawled out of the car. "I think part of my soul just died." She gasped, clutching her chest.

Piotr sat where he had been sitting the entire ride, hand covering his eyes, metal covering his body. "It is over?"


	13. Chapter 13

Unfortunately, Jubilee recovered quickly from her near-Remy experience, and quickly set about supplying Rogue with a mountain of clothing to try on.

Rogue was two more trips to the dressing room away from strangling her to death.

"And this!" Jubilee finished off whatever list of outfit choices she had just been going through while Rogue was contemplating from what angle she could get the best grip on her trachea. "I think that should be enough for right now." She threw the article of clothing she had been holding up into Piotr's arms with the rest of them. Rogue was concerned that she couldn't see the top of his head anymore.

"Uh- Jubes." Rogue looked over the massive pile of clothing. "Don't you thing this is enough for… like… ever?"

"Omigosh!" Jubilee suddenly screeched, completely ignoring Rogue. "I forgot about gloves!" She stomped away to where there must have been a glove section in the department store, muttering about how she was going to have to rearrange to color pallet she had been working on.

"Is she gone?" Piotr and Remy both asked in unison, the latter peeking out from inside one of the dress racks.

"Run!" Rogue hissed. "While she's distracted!"

"Someone should be staying here." Piotr argued.

An intense Rock-Paper-Scissors battle immediately broke out between the three of them.

"Haha!" Rogue crowed. Rock. Rock. Scissors. "Seeya Pete!"

"In each war, soldiers must fall." Remy bowed deeply as they both backed out of the store.

"That was a close one." Rogue breathed when they were a safe distance away. "I told you she was crazy." She trailed her shoulder against the wall, far away from the scant other people navigating their own paths in the wide, white, store lined halls as she could get in the small space provided.

Remy seemed to notice and quickly dragged her away from the wall and slung his arm around her so that she wouldn't retreat back. She surprised herself slightly when she didn't shrug the arm off, and instead leaned into his warmth.

"I knew you couldn't resist me." He mumbled into her ear with an unmistakable smirk.

Rogue rolled her eyes and punched him lightly in the shoulder. Or, what she thought was lightly.

"_Merde!" _He hissed, crumpling to the ground in pain.

"What happened?" Rogue panicked, kneeling down next to him. "I'm sorry!" She said quickly, wringing her fingers together because she was too afraid to touch him.

Remy quickly regained composure. "I'm fine, _chere." _He said, hoisting himself into an upright position. He smiled at her.

"Remy… You're bleeding." She pointed at the growing red spot on his shoulder.

"Oh… well, how 'bout that." He poked at it slightly and had to dig his fingernails into his palms to keep from crying out in pain. This probably shouldn't have surprised him. Stuff like this happens when you're doing flips over counters the day after you get stabbed in the shoulder.

"We should get that checked out!" She said hurriedly upon seeing that the spot showed no signs of slowing down. "C'mon, there's a-."

Remy turned on the charm faster than she could say 'hospital'. "I think I'll be fine. Just a scratch." He smiled at her and she stared at him, entranced.

"M'kay." She mumbled, unblinking as she gazed deeply into his eyes. He wondered what she saw there. Did she see the devil he did when he looked into the mirror? Or did she see that little voice that was screaming at him that it was wrong to charm a girl just to get out of a hospital visit.

_Shut your face! _He barked at the voice.

_I. don't. have. a. face._ It snapped right back. Remy was wondering which was more concerning - That he was getting into fights with his conscience, or that he was losing to it. It always seemed more persistent to have it's way when Rogue was near.

"At least let me take a look at it." Rogue bargained, still looking at him like he _was _sliced bread.

"_Non." _He objected bluntly. "I'm fine!"

She put her hand down on his shoulder.

"_Merde!" _He bared his teeth. His spell over her was broken.

"Right." She said sarcastically, tearing at the collar of his jacket until his blood-stained shirt was exposed. "Shiiiit." She drawled, slightly impressed as well as concerned. "When the hell did this happen?"

"Uh-." Remy searched for suitable lie.

"Did Riptide do this?" She asked, her voice reached octaves unknown to man. The four other people in the entire mall started to stare. "You didn't get this checked out yesterday?"

Was that a trick question?

"No?" Remy tried to catch her eye again so that he could convince her to let him go.

She glared him down.

"We're leaving." She said. She turned around and dragged him towards the store Jubilee and Piotr were still in.

"What do you mean she left?" Jubilee was screeching at a pale Piotr with five shopping bags hooked in her fingers when Rogue stomped by them.

"We're leaving." She relayed the message to them without sparing them a glance, applying pressure to Remy's shoulder when he tried to slip her grip again.

"Dammit!" He cursed. "Y' don' need to be so mean t' me, _chere."_

-

The drive back to the institute had been much less eventful than the one away from it. Mostly because Piotr was driving and Remy was sitting in the back with Rogue, arguing about how he wasn't going to the damn med lab.

"You're goin' to the mad lab, swamp rat, if I havta drag ya down there myself." She snarled, yanking him out of the car and straight into the mansion before he could slip his way out of her firm grip on his shoulder.

"Stormy!" Remy felt like a child trying to escape punishment. "Make 'er let Remy go!"

Rogue dragged him into the elevator of the X-mansion before Storm could hear his pleas for help.

"Now, take of your shirt!" She barked as she dragged him through the chrome doors into a wide room that reeked of antiseptic and pain.

Remy paused momentarily in his struggles. "You should have opened the conversation wit' dat, _chere." _He commented glibly. "I would have put up much less of a fight." His smile was to cover up the dread filling his stomach. He _hated _hospitals.

"Just do it." She growled.

"Another poorly worded sentence." He tried to smirk, but simply complied when she glared at him.

_Oh. My. God. _Rogue held her breath as she watched him remove the blood soaked article of clothing. If perfection had a visual guide, it would have been Remy LeBeau's body. Even streaked with blood and littered with pale scars, the heat that radiated from it made Rogue want to do very un lady-like things to him.

A warm feeling that Rogue greatly associated with teenage hormones washed over her.

He gave her a funny look all of the sudden.

"You feelin' okay?" He asked.

"Y-yeah." She stuttered, looking down to hide her blush. _Friends, friends, friends. _She chanted on the inside of her head. _Can't touch, can't touch, can't touch. _Soon followed. "Shut up and sit down!" She snapped, going the Logan-route with her confusing emotions and just converting them to rage.

He put his hands up in mock surrender and sat down tentatively on one of the stainless steel tables, for some reason he was grinning like a fool.

"I'll go get Hank and he'll check you out." She said.

"You step out that door, I'll be gone faster than a flash." Remy smirked back at her.

"Fine," She grumbled, pulling off her cloth gloves and replacing them with a pair of surgical ones. "I'll do it."

"I don' know how much I can trust y'r medical schoolin'." Remy protested.

"Hush up." She sniffed, collecting gauze and wrap, noticing that the wound wasn't deep enough for stitches to be an appropriate response, even though she did want to stab him. "For your information, as an X-man I know a great deal about medical… stuff."

He chuckled at her. She was sorely tempted to throw things at him.

"Just be quiet and I won't havta hurt you." She snipped as she started wiping up the blood on his chest. He winced away once or twice when she got close to his ribs. "Are your ribs hurting too?" She asked. She was no good with ribs.

"Uh.." He stalled. "Yes."

"That was a pretty shaky yes there Cajun." She mocked, mood lightening significantly. She decided to try something. Instead of patting at his flesh like she had been, she ran the cloth in her hand down the side of his chest in one sweeping motion.

He burst into laughter. "Stop it!"

"You're ticklish!" She accused, laughing at him.

"Am not!" he crossed his arms over his chest defiantly.

She swiped at his ribs again.

"_Now _you decide to try an' be fun?" He questioned in the middle of his laughing fit.

"Yes!" She reached out to get him again, but he was faster. "No!" She screeched as she tried to escape his grip, gasping for air as his fingers raked along her sides at the exact spots that made her laugh the hardest. "Nooo!" She giggled.

"Am I interrupting something?" A cold voice asked from the door of the med lab. Bobby Drake did not seem to be very pleased with finding Rogue wrapped in the arms of a half naked man.

-

_Jamie will get back to this 'plot' nonsense soon enough. Right now, she has a Remy/Bobby showdown to coordinate. _


	14. Chapter 14

Storm whistled to herself with amusement as she held the box at arm's length and went off to search for Remy. She thought she had heard him calling for her a little while ago, but she had been to busy cackling like an actual witch to find him.

She felt positively _evil _carrying that box.

The only problem was that she had to find Remy so that she could fully appreciate the evil, dammit. She had looked through every room of this place, but couldn't get her hands on him… unless… nah. No way… but, maybe…

Storm cocked her head thoughtfully before heading towards the elevator to check out a hunch. But… no way, that was just crazy. Remy wouldn't be caught dead in the med lab. She was just checking.

She went back to whistling and smirking as she petted the box fondly. "You, my little box," She whispered to it. "Are going to make so many years of suffering 'Stormy' worth it."

She cackled like a mad woman when she peeked inside the box for the third time in the short trip.

She was going to enjoy this to much for her own good.

The elevator doors opened.

"Well, last I checked, _Bobby, _y' don' really have any say in whose half naked arms she finds herself in, now do you?" Remy's voice drifted out of the med lab.

Whoa. _Did not _see that one coming.

"You sonova-" Bobby's voice growled.

"Bobby! Language." Storm snapped as she entered the room, slightly stunned by seeing 1) Remy there 2) Remy there, shirtless 3) Remy there, shirtless, and bleeding 4) Remy there, shirtless, bleeding and actually seeking medical attention. Sure, there were other interesting things about the room, like the fact that Rogue and Bobby were in the same room for the first time since Remy had punched Bobby's lights out, but she was really more concerned with her friend that was in a place that made him so horribly uncomfortable, obviously injured.

She almost forgot about the box… almost…

"Are you alright?" She carefully placed her secret weapon box off to the side as she went to Remy's side. "Honey. when did this happen?" She checked out the hole in his shoulder. It had obviously scabbed over at one point, but some form of abuse had coaxed it back into an unhealthy amount of blood loss.

"Dat happened…" Remy looked around as if a good lie was going to fall out of the sky. "When Rogue punched me?" He ventured.

"Good try." Storm gave him a pat on the head for effort before patching him up quickly. Rogue stood off to the side apprehensively, obviously worried something might go wrong. Bobby slouched against the back wall, taking in everything through his black eye.

"Ow!" Remy protested as Storm taped the gauze into place a little bit rougher then necessary.

"It you could stop getting stabbed for about a week and a half I wouldn't-." Ororo suddenly realized what she was saying. The memory of all the blood he had lost last time flashed to the front of her subconscious. She stood back and looked over his chest, picking out one scar in particular. It was much larger than the others and it covered a lot more important areas.

Remy followed her gaze.

"Looks a lot better, no?" He tried to crack a joke, but he knew as well as she did how damn close he had come that night. Storm's fingers unconsciously reached out and traced the raised tissue.

"It was so bad." She mumbled absent mindedly.

"Aren't you seeing this?" Bobby burst out abruptly at Rogue. "He's practically seducing her right in front of your eyes!" Rogue jumped at suddenly being addressed and Bobby fumed, obviously just barely restraining himself from taking action. "He's a womanizing man-whore! I don't even _know _the guy and I can see that! He's gonna hurt you, Rogue. He's going to hurt you a lot."

"_Homme." _Remy's eyes darkened. A deck of cards suddenly appeared in his hands, being shuffled coolly. "Y' gon wan' t' take dat back righ' 'bout now."

"Remy," Storm's voice held warning tones.

"_Non," _Remy stepped out of her grip and up to Bobby. The difference between the two was almost humorous. Remy towered over the younger boy, his sleek, wiry muscle was tense with anticipation of the next move, but still looked cool and collected. Bobby had inflated himself as much as possible to look more intimidating to the darker, taller, and all around more daunting man in front of him. "If de boy wants t' start something'." Remy's smile was slow and spine chilling. "I'd be more than willing to end it."

The challenge had been set.

Bobby pretended to not consider for a moment, but his pride had been hurt. Bobby Drake lived for his pride

"Danger Room." Bobby sneered as he turned away. "Ten minutes."

Storm saw Remy clench his fists around the gloves that covered his hands.

He always wore gloves.

"Well, this is appropriate." Ororo chirped, breaking the tense silence of Rogue and Remy as she snuck over to her box.

"What is?" Remy asked tiredly.

"HAHAHA!" She cackled as she tore the lid off the box and shoved it in Remy's direction.

He paled.

"You've got to be kidding me."

* * *

There were very few men that could pull of a leather outfit. Even less than that who could pull off a leather outfit with a giant 'X' stitched onto the front. And an even smaller number than that who could pull off a leather outfit with a giant 'X' stitched onto the front and a blood stained trench coat.

Remy LeBeau was one of those men.

Girls literally wavered in their step to watch him stomp down the hallway and tailed after him like lovesick puppies.

Not that he was really concerned with that at the moment. He had a jackass to kill.

News of the soon to be brawl had spread like wild fire (thanks to the ever talkative Jubilee) and it slowly dawned on the mansion that no one had any idea what the new guy's power was. As it was common knowledge that Bobby Drake owned the Danger Room's face, and not yet knowledge at all that new guy was an X-man, all bets placed were against new guy.

"Remy," Rogue rushed down the hall toward him. "You aren't actually goin' to fight him are you?"

"_Oui._" He said curtly, glaring straight ahead, tugging slightly at the collar of the suit. Damn leather. Damn leather to hell.

"But you don't even know Bobby's power!" She protested, shooting a glare at the swarm of girls following him. "Get someone else tah stalk ya crazies!" She barked.

Remy smirked slightly at her fired up expression as he fiddled with the deck of cards in his fingers. She was too cute when she was angry.

"Look, _chere,_" Remy said fondly, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her forward with him. "Y' need t' calm down." He played with the white pieces of her hair as they entered the elevator together.

"But you're hurtin'." She looked slightly pained. "An' he saw yah!" She shook her head and batted away his hands. "If I know anything' 'bout Bobby Drake, it's that he's gonna do anythin' tah win. That includes hittin' and injured man where it hurts."

A warmth that he knew he didn't deserve wrapped around him. She cared. Genuinely. She cared if he was hurt.

"As I remember, river rat," Remy smirked at her. "Y' did the same thing t' me about a half hour ago."

She turned red.

"That was different! I was hittin yah fo' yah own good!" She snapped.

Remy chuckled as the elevator doors open on the lower levels, revealing the chrome and steel underbelly of the X mansion. He flicked the cards from one hand to the other in a snake-like motion.

"Why cards?" Rogue asked suddenly.

Remy chuckled again, sifting through the deck.

"There's nothing that leaves the imagination free enough to contemplate sin than a deck of cards or a beautiful woman." He held up a single card to her. "An' since I would never hurt a beautiful woman-."

Rogue looked at the card that she had taken from him as he disappeared out the door.

The Queen of Hearts.

* * *

"Mr. Gambit isn't gonna get hurt, is he?" Jamie tugged at the cuff of her pants, successfully pulling her out of the trance she had worked herself into while staring at the card.

"No, sweetheart." Rogue grabbed under his arms and hoisted him into her lap so that he would have a better view of the Danger Room, which was pretty boring right now with Storm going over the rules for Remy's benefit. The booth, however, was filled to the brim with excited students, the promise of action bringing them together. "He knows what he's doing."

Truth be told, Rogue wasn't sure. She hadn't seen much of him actually fighting someone. She saw a few seconds of him defending himself against Logan and maybe a instant or two of him defending himself against Riptide (which obviously hadn't worked out as well as it could have) But she had yet to see him actually _fight _someone.

She knew that using the Danger Room outside of the instruction time was promoted , especially in one-on-one combat, so Storm hadn't really put up a fight against it, even though Remy's shoulder was torn up. Rogue hoped she knew what she was getting him into.

"Alright gentlemen," Said headmistress addressed the two men down in the Danger Room. "Bobby, keep this clean. No cheap shots, no hitting below the belt." She directed her stern look at Bobby, who snickered. "And, Remy," She turned to the other man, who was leaning on his bo leisurely, grinning like the patron saint of sin. Everyone in the booth rolled their eyes, expecting another 'fight clean' or maybe even a 'don't kick him while he's down'.

Storm sighed and put her hand down gently on his shoulder.

"Don't kill him." She begged.

The people who bet against the new guy were starting to get a little nervous.

"Logan's going to hate that he missed this." Rogue commented.

Storm had explained the rules to him, so Remy was pretty clear on the 'hard light' concept. What he saw would hurt like what he saw. Which also meant that it would charge like what he saw.

He turned his grin to Bobby.

"Y' ready f'r this, boy?"

Bobby smirked right back. "Are you?"

Remy laughed as the scenery around him changed in a sweep from the metallic playground to a dirty city street. "It's what I do."

"Ready?" Storm's voice called from the control room. Remy and Bobby set their stances.

"Yeah."

"_Oui."_

"Have at it." The voice cut out and Bobby immediately sprang into action by shooting ice spears at Remy.

_Oh dear, _He thought sarcastically as they bore down on him. _If only I had some sort of super agility with which to avoid your silly ice spears… Oh, wait, I totally have super agility._

He crouched to the ground and then sprang back up, flipping in the air so that he landed behind Bobby at the other end of the street, charged staff first.

Bobby was thrown into one of the walls of the building next to him, shocked.

"What the hell was that?" He iced up the ground in front of him in a panic.

"That," Gambit twirled the staff around in his fingers expertly. "Was the beginning _homme_." He slammed the staff down into the floor again and all of the ice shattered, blowing up into Bobby's face.

Bobby covered his eyes expertly and decided that he was quite done was this 'losing' shit.

Remy's eyes widened momentarily as the teen that stood out of the smoke was not the flesh and bone one that had gone down in it.

A grin split Remy's face as he looked at the Iceman.

"Be that chargeable ice I spy?" He chuckled.

"I SAID NO KILLING HIM!" Storm screeched over the intercom.

"Don't get y'r panties in a bunch!" Remy snapped, ducking under some ice daggers. "I'll just mortally wound 'm."

"The hell you will." Iceman spat as he played a dirty trick.

Gambit rolled out of the way of the ice barrage aimed at the back of his knees and pulled a deck of cards out of his sleeve.

"Oh," Iceman mocked as he set up making an icy spike. "What are ya gonna do? Paper cut me to death?"

Gambit's demon eyes sparked. "Didya think the staff just blew things up?" He held three cards in between his fingers. "No, _homme," _The cards started to glow pink. "Dat was me."

Bobby was blown sky high.

"Y'know boy, y' ain't very good at dis 'survivin' thing." Remy commented as he moseyed over to where the kid fell, kicking him lightly in the side. "Wakey, wakey…"

Bobby reached out like a snap and froze Gambit's trench coat solid.

"An' playing dead don't suit you well." Remy charged the coat to thaw it, but wasn't moving quickly enough.

Bobby round housed him in the jaw before he could move his arms.

"Ya know, I knew Marie would go out and find someone else after she left here." Bobby kicked him while he was down. "That I would have to fight a little bit to get her back." He kicked him again. "But I honestly didn't think he'd be such a loser." Again. "What was your name again?" He cocked back his leg again.

Remy's boot made contact with his jaw.

"What's my name?" He growled as he drew himself to his full height. His eyes flashed with murder. "I go by a couple of t'ings."

A charged card landed by Bobby's side. He scrambled to get out of the way in time.

_Boom._

"_Le diable blanc, _for one." Another card went sailing after Bobby.

_Boom._

"Remy LeBeau, sometimes."

_Boom._

"Experiment number 952643, for a while."

_Boom._

"Pawn."

_Boom._

"Killer."

_Boom._

"Monster."

_Boom._

"But, if y' can't think o' anythin'," He cornered Bobby against a building. The boy was panting and bleeding. He held a glowing card out in front of himself. The light reflected off of his eyes in an evil way. "Y' can just call me, Thief. Simple, easy to remember, describes me to a T." The card started to spastically frazzle with all of the extra energy it had been pumped full of. "Come back and fight me after y' make a few deals with the devil."

Remy threw the card over his shoulder, showing mercy to Bobby. There was another explosion and that half of the street came tumbling down.

Remy turned away and started to swagger/limp away from the wounded pride of Bobby Drake.

Bobby Drake _lived _for his pride.

Remy never knew about the ice spike aimed at his wounded shoulder until it hit him.

_

* * *

_

_BA-ZAM._

_Goodness, I am just Satan this week :3_

_Note- this chapter is better when re read and listening to some kick ass music (Like Ignition by TobyMac… just sayin'…) That little bit where Rogue asked him why he used cards was actually a part in Evolution (not exactly like that) and I thought his answer sucked. So I re-wrote it. The end! … Not actually…_


	15. Chapter 15

_I just watched Origins again and I decided that I kinda like that whole 'oemgee the cards are FLOATING because he's so badass' bit. So I have decided to employ it for when Gambit loses his cool… heheh…_

_And, no, Jamie has not explained about Remy and Storm's last encounter as it is entirely the spawn of her imagination. That will be resolved in two (ish) chapters where things will really start heating up! OH NOES! The plot monster is back!_

* * *

The ice spike pierced Remy's shoulder. He gave a grunt of pain before falling to his knees.

"_Shit!" _Storm screamed. Everyone in the booth looked at her stunned, Storm _never _cursed. "Jamie!" She pulled the little boy sitting in Rogue's lap, who had up until this point been toying with the Queen of Hearts, pretending that he could make it blow up. "I need you to go find Dr. McCoy!"

Rogue clamped her hands down on the edge of the chair o keep herself still. She took a deep breath and counted to ten, waiting for the voices in her head to quite down enough so that she could think. When they did, she found that she still had the urge to burn Bobby to ashes, cut him into little pieces, pull all of the iron out of his blood, and freeze the little charred, bloodless pieces of him with his own damn powers so that she could fully express how pissed off at him she was.

"Gambit will be fine, Miss Munroe." Kitty tried to keep the situation calm as Jamie scampered away. "We can patch him up here, it doesn't look too bad."

Storm looked at her like she was crazy. "I'm not worried about _him._"

Jamie ran down the hallway, his little feet propelling him as quickly as he could force them without falling and making another ten Jamies. He didn't see the man walking down the hall until he ran into him.

"Oof!" Jamie collided with the ground. Five other Jamies were scattered about him. "What are you doing h-…" His accusatory question to the man was cut off when he looked up at him. Jamie had never seen that man before in his life. He was tall and held a wide stance, with his hands propped on his hips, even when walking. He had long white hair and sharp features.

He wasn't the sort of man you would forget meeting.

"Sorry, kiddo," He leaned over and helped Jamies 1-6 stand. "I should try to watch where I'm going better."

"I shouldn't have been running." Jamie's polite roots took hold and he shook away the stranger's self blame. They nodded to each other civilly and started to turn their separate ways to embark on their separate tasks.

"Say, kid," The man looked back to him. Jamie turned around hesitantly, a little wary of strangers. "I don't know if you'd know, but I'm looking for two of my friends here. A tall guy with red and black eyes and a pretty girl with brown and white hair?"

"Mr. Gambit and Miss Rogue?" Jamie #3 spoke before thinking.

"That'd be them." He smiled down at Jamie.

Jamie nodded innocently, a little confused by the man in his home. But, he hadn't tried to hurt him and he knew Mr. Gambit and Miss Rogue, so he couldn't be a bad guy, could he?

Obviously, Jamie was just overreacting to a stranger in the way a child of his age was programmed to overreact to strange people invading their homes. But, this was the Xavier Institute. Strange people collected here in hordes.

Jamie was about to turn away, remembering that Mr. Gambit needed him, but was pulled back one last time by that stranger's voice.

"Just a word of advice- Stay innocent, kiddo." The man smiled at him before turning away. What could he say; Riptide had a soft spot for kids.

* * *

Remy was glowing with fury. Every article of clothing, every object surrounding him, cast off a hatefully spastic hue.

"_Homme." _His growl sounded like cold fingers around one's throat. "Y' gon' regret dat."

Bobby's smirk dimmed several shades, but did not altogether disappear.

"What are you going to do? Turn me pink?" He scoffed, icing over again.

"Boy," Remy stood up and bridged a deck of cards in his fingers. Pain shot through his shoulder, but he ignored it. "Y' ain't too bright."

"Ohhhh…." Rogue and Ororo said in unison from their spots in the control room. They both knew what was about to happen. Ororo, because she knew that Remy did not take kindly to hitting a man while his back's turned. Rogue, because one of Logan's blocked memories had just been forced upon her like a punch in the face. Casino. Smoke. Drinks. Laughter. Music. Glowing cards and violence. _Now _she knew what it was like to watch Remy fight. "_Shiiiiiit…."_

Remy spread him arms wide above his head and instead of falling to the ground like a deck of cards moving of their own accord would have, each little sheet of gambling paper suspended itself between his outstretched fingers.

The students in the control room watched with wide eyes. It wasn't everyday you were able to witness a clash of titans. …Or, rather, a titan, and a little ice boy who was suddenly in way over his head.

The emotions clashing around on the inside of Bobby Drake's little head were very, _very _clear to Remy. The panic and fear egged him on. The shattered pride and confidence made the edge of the glow in the cards so much more satisfactory in his eyes, knowing that his little deck of tricks had done that to a once high and mighty man.

"Question-" Remy flicked the top card on the suspended deck around in his fingers in much the same fashion as someone might with a coin as a nervous habit. "How many suits a' cards does it take to break de ice?" His purposefully bad pun was accented by a swift flick of the fingers and the largest explosion the Danger Room had ever been exposed to.

Bobby screamed as he was thrown backwards.

"Only one?" Remy clucked his tongue, honestly disappointed. He charged the rest of the deck. He was almost looking forward to seeing the bloody stain that the boy was going to be in a few moments.

Remy smiled. His eye teeth glinted in the scant lighting.

"Shut down the simulation!" Rogue yelled, working over the panel with Ororo by her side.

"I'm working on it!" She furiously typed in the pass codes.

Bobby tried to scramble away from him like the coward he was, whimpering. Remy felt scandalized by his fear. Outrageously offended. Remy knew what pain felt like. He knew the song of panic. He knew the hollowness of dread. He knew what pure, justified, and boundless hate felt like.

Bobby didn't.

Not yet.

But, by God, by the time Remy was through with him, Bobby would _beg _for the sad excuse of pain he was feeling now. Grovel at his feet at _plead _for the contrived set of emotions he was experiencing.

_What would the girl think! _His conscience prayed with him to see what he was doing.

Remy was to far gone to listen to the obnoxious voice of good inside his head when it was so very obvious to him that he was sin personified. His black soul was already tainted beyond any bleach a damn _conscience _could offer him. Remy knew that he was damned. Everyone who had ever met Remy knew that he was damned. Except for a little girl with a white stripe in her hair and too many problems to justify being associated with him.

Bobby's moan of pain snapped him back into action.

"And now," Remy growled, a card at the ready. "You die."

He pulled back his arm to give the explosion that would happen the proper spin away from him when something caught his eye and he hesitated a moment. The face on the card that glowed sardonically between his fingers looked at him with an understanding smile. The King of Hearts.

He had saved the Queen.

Did the King really deserve to be condemned?

The pink glow to the regal card faded slowly.

Bobby Drake had now been twice at the mercy of Remy Lebeau, and twice he had been set free.

"I wan' y' t' remember dis when y' 'bout t' do somethin' stupid, Iceboy." Remy growled. "I ain't gonna kill y'… _Today… _but watch y'rself. Not even the Queen 'erself will save you from mon deck a third time." His demon eyes bore holes into the pure blue eyes of the all-American boy scout's.

Bobby nodded his submission and Remy finished his swagger/limp he had started before.

"Hm…" Riptide watched from his hidden crouch. He pulled out his phone and began to tap in the number engraved in his memories. "My, my, how our Gambit has changed. A third chance? That girl must be having a positive effect on him." His eyes flicked to the girl with the stripe, who was almost weeping with relief as she ran down to meet him as he exited the 'Danger Room'

"_Yes, Riptide?" _The chilled voice answered his call after the first ring.

"I want a team." His clipped response was just the way his boss would approve- To the point.

"_Done."_

"How long?"

"_Three days. Do you think you can wait that long by yourself?"_

Riptide's eyes were again caught by the girl with the white stripe in her hair as she held her head, as if in pain. Gambit immediately seemed to forget his own pain and was all over the girl.

"Ah'm fine," She insisted in her honey-sweet accent, batting away his hands and trying to get a good look as his shoulder. "Are you alright, swamp rat?"

"Jus' fine, _chere." _Gambit held her gaze tenderly for a moment and the girl blushed.

"I think I'll be able to find something to amuse myself with." Riptide mused.


	16. Chapter 16

Remy grunted with pain as Storm threw him down on one of the operating tables in the med lab.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to escape from Pete and Warren when they brought you here the first time." She said simply.

"I. Don'. Like. Hospitals." He growled, clutching his shoulder. The fingerless gloves that he wore religiously were missing.

"Well, Mr. LeBeau," The big furry blue doctor that Storm had introduced as Hank McCoy said. "I will be the first to assure you that we mean you no harm down here. This place is for the betterment of all."

Remy snorted. "Dat's what they told me last time."

Storm looked at him sympathetically despite the fact she didn't know exactly what he meant. "It'll be alright." She smiled pleasantly at him. He rolled his eyes at her. "Besides, I got you a present." She reached over her shoulder and tossed him a bottle, which he caught with his still moveable arm deftly. The contents of the bottle sloshed around as if being awoken from a slumber. "At least you gave me a little bit of a heads up this time before you showed up and bled all over the place." She sighed.

"I knew I liked you." He commented to Storm while inspecting the bottle. "I mean, at one point I _thought _I liked you, but this seals it, I like you." He used his teeth as leverage to get the cap off of the bottle of bourbon and relieved the container of a good fraction of it's burden.

"Glad to hear it." Ororo smirked. "I'll be right back. I've got to go check on Bobby in the other room." She gave him a little wave as she disappeared out of the sectioned off rooms in favor of the one with the boy who had two fractured ribs, fractured scapula, mild internal bleeding, and a broken arm. Not to mention the broken nose and lovely shiner he had already cultivated beforehand.

Remy and his conscience had a good laugh just thinking about it, both of them agreeing this could count among his scant amount of good deeds.

Hank muttered something to himself as he rooted around in one of his cabinets.

"Whatcha lookin' f'r, Henry?" Remy craned his neck out of curiosity.

"Sedative." Hank stood back and scratched his head. "I could have sworn I had left it in there, next to the- Ah, there it is!" He grinned happily as he pulled a small glass container filled with clear liquid out of the recesses of the cabinet. "It's so hard to keep these things organized when all of the people authorized to use it are barely adults." He chuckled to himself as he opened a drawer to pick out a sterile needle.

Remy 's eyes grew as big as dinner plates.

"STORMY!" He felt like a bawling child running back to his mother for protection from the boogie man. "ORORO!"

"What?" She breathed as she came sprinting back into the room. "What's wrong, Remy?" She surveyed the room and immediately understood. "Hank," She said calmly. "Remy doesn't do needles."

"But, I need to relax the boy or his mutation might-."

"Hank," She cut him off. "Please try to understand. No needles."

Hank contemplated this for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose I'll just have to make do without, then. Is there any other way to get him to relax?"

They both turned to Remy in sync to watch him down the last of the bourbon.

"I think ahead." Storm smiled.

"Woman," Remy wiped his mouth with his bare arm. "It's gonna take a hell of a lot more than a cheap bottle of bourbon to get me to calm down!" He vowed, eyes burning.

Just then the doors to the med lab opened.

"Sorry," A flushed and slightly sweaty Rogue rushed in. "I had to go change right quick." She panted a little bit. "There was blood all over my gloves. I had to run there and back." She explained, pushing some damp white hair out of her eyes so that she could get a better look at Remy.

He knew he didn't look good. The ice spike had finished the job that the bone spike had started, stabbing all the way through the shoulder, though avoiding the artery there. Remy wondered if Bobby had done that on purpose or had simply misaimed. There was a lovely purple shade that had spread across his flesh in the area surrounding the swollen puncture. The fibers of the gauze that had been securely taped over the first wound were very nearly cemented to the newer one with fresh blood. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but his head was cloudy with the lack of blood and his limbs felt weighed down and slow. There were bruises all over his sides from where Bobby had struck him that were every color in the rainbow.

"It looks awful!" Rogue blanched and rushed over to his side.

Remy immediately relaxed his muscles and took on a more casual position so that she wouldn't actually see how much pain he was in. "I've had worse." He attempted to soothe her. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?" She screeched, her arms drawn up to her chest in a fretting gesture, eyes wide with horror.

"Calm down, _chere." _He hushed gently. "Remy'll be fine." He promised as he took her hand and ran the pad of his thumb over her covered knuckles. They both paused a moment, enjoying the feeling of the other. Her wild emotions were coaxed back down into a manageable level as she watched the hypnotic motion of his finger over hers. He winced as he brought up his other hand to cradle her face, but gritted through it just do that he could get a good look at her eyes. "I promise." He mumbled to her.

She smiled faintly, but nodded her trust and took a deep, steadying breath.

He accepted this as the proper response and closed his eyes for a moment.

That's when Rogue saw it.

Perhaps it was because of the harsh lighting of the med lab or maybe how pale his features had become with all of the recent blood loss that allowed the paper-thin scars around his eyes that were normally invisible became more striking. They were obviously surgical in design based on the straight lines and sharp angles that they took . Planned and executed cleanly.

"What happened?" She asked before she could stop herself.

Remy's fingers left the grace of her hand and traced lightly over the scars as if he needed to be reminded they were still there.

"Apparently," He mumbled. "My eyes are very interestin'." The air of closure around the statement firmly told her that the subject of the scars around his eyes was closed.

"And these?" She recaptured his hand and ran her daintily encased fingers over the spider webbing of scar tissue that ran over his thumb and wrist.

"When my powers first manifested," He flexed his hand experimentally. "It took me a little by surprise."

"What about this one?" She traced what looked like a small cylindrical burn mark on his other arm.

"Julien's cigarette."

"Julien?" She interrupted with a quizzical look.

He cringed.

"Just a _homme _that didn't like me very much." He mumbled his answer.

"And this…" Rogue placed her hand hesitantly on his chest, smoothing her fingers over the jagged scar that stretched over a good portion of his chest as if it was still going to cause him pain. "How did you get this?"

He brought his hand up over hers and gently lifted it off of his chest and up to his lips.

"Now that, _chere," _Remy smiled. "_That_ is a story."

"You'll have to tell it to me one day, Cajun." Rogue smiled faintly.

"Promise y' won't hate me after I'm finished tellin' it?" His smile was fainter than hers.

"As if I could hate you." She snorted.

"I dunno, _chere," _He eased himself back down into a vertical position. "I dunno..."

Ororo stood in the corner and watched the exchange. She watched Remy dole out answers that left Rogue feeling satisfied that she had received some information on him with out actually sacrificing any information at all.

"Rogue," She interrupted the both of them. They both jumped slightly and blinked up at her as if she were some novel thing they had not been expecting despite the fact she had been in the room the entire time. "I think that it's time to let Hank take care of Remy's shoulder, don't you?" She didn't wait for a response before she shooed the girl out of the room. "Maybe you can go check on Bobby." She suggested before proverbially 'slamming' the sliding door in the girl's face.

When Storm turned back to Remy her eyes were snow white.

"Uh- I - uh-," Hank stuttered. "Perhaps I should finish with the boy's shoulder before we have whatever inevitable discussion is next?" He suggested hopefully.

If only someone had heard him.

"You. Are. RIDICULOUS!" Storm threw her hands up in the air.

"What?" He backed up his back into the wall next to the table. "What'd I do?""You can't even answer her questions about _scars? _Scars, Remy! _Scars!_" Storm was moments and the physical barrier of Hank McCoy away from strangling him. "What on earth could she do with that information that could hurt you?" She demanded. "Are you just to afraid to let her in? She trusts you and you can't even tell her about _scars!_"

Remy could think of a lot of things that the girl could do to make him hurt, none of which he felt like sharing with Ororo.

"I just…" He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I just don' wan' 'er t' know who -what- I actually am. Though I kinda think I let the cat outa de bag on dat one when I was 'bout t' blow up de ice jackass."

Storm took a deep breath and counted to forty-nine before she could squelch the urge to kill him.

"She couldn't hear you." Ororo sighed. "You were talking to low and there were to many explosions. That is still a little secret between you, me, and I guess now Bobby. "

Remy's eyes flashed.

_Bobby. _

"If we are quite done with this," Hank interrupted. "I'd very much like to _sew up your shoulder before you die." _

"Oh…" Remy looked at his shoulder, having almost forgotten that there was a hole through it. "Sure thing, Henry." He laid himself out on the table again, forcing his muscles to relax.

"Anything else you would like to add before I attempt to actually heal the boy, Ororo?" Hank turned to the weather witch.

She nodded and made her way to Remy's side. She traced the scar on his chest dully with one hand.

"Don't hurt her."

"Should I…" Remy swallowed thickly. "Should I tell 'er?"

"I think so…" Ororo mumbled and then stood. "But, Remy, the choice is yours. You can be the good guy, or you can be the one that's going to get stabbed to death by Logan."

"Y' ain't leavin' me with much of a choice 'ere." He tried to joke.

"Didn't want to." Storm smirked. "Just remember - Lighting, unfriendly places…"

"I get it!"

Outside of the door, Rogue sighed heavily, contemplating trying to get back into the room. Her hand hovered above the door for a moment, poised to knock, but she eventually decided against causing any more mayhem in the room and keeping Remy from the attention he required.

She hesitated another half a second before walking away, completely unaware of the sharp eyes that followed her.

Riptide toyed around with the wires in his hands, the small bits of the electronics that they had belonged to still clung to some of them. The hunter instinct inside of him kept him concealed in the shadows as he stalked his two prey.

The first step of successfully breaking a spirit is to find out what they love most…

… And then killing it…

-

_Argh- Sorry this is so short and doesn't really do anything and Im sorry that I haven't updated in a while (I was busy dying of a *duh duh duhh* MEDICAL MYSTERY!) But I'm back (ish) and healthy (sorta) and ready to write (as always!) _


	17. Chapter 17

_This chapter is brought to you today by the letter 'H' for Hanky Panky, and the song 'Possum Kingdom' By The Toadies!_

* * *

Rogue sighed heavily as she dragged herself down the hallways, forcing herself not to wince with pain every time someone backed far away from her or sneered at her existence.

They hated her.

Individually, they saw themselves as beautifully unique and strong. And the knowledge that there was someone out there who could steal that from them killed them.

And it killed her too.

She ducked her head down until her chin almost touched her chest as she passed the Rec Room, ignoring their catcalls when they noticed her passing down the hallway.

"How's Gambit, Poison Touch?"

"Hope you didn't kiss him to make it better!"

They elaborately acted out her kissing him and them him falling to the ground with a seizure of some sort until he finally went limp. They were in the middle of attempting to revive the boy playing Gambit, yelling out 'CLEAR!' every time they pretended to shock him before she could break away.

She doubled her pace down the hallway, choking back her tears. She wished Logan was there to chase them away. Or Warren to beat them up for saying hurtful things. Or Piotr to assure her that they were just jerks. Or Jubilee to threaten to fry their eyeballs out. Even a possessive arm around the shoulder from Bobby or a 'Like, shut up you guys!' from Kitty would have been better then facing them herself.

_But what about Rembrandt? _Erik asked her, swinging into his old habit of calling people by their full names. _What do you think he would do?_

_I don't know what Remy would do. _She admitted as she opened the door to her room and shut it firmly behind her.

_Kick their asses! _John whooped. _Did you see him and Bobby! OH MAN! Poetry. Pure poetry._

_Shut up, John! _Bobby snapped.

_Both of you shut up! _Logan growled. _You're giving Marie a headache._

Which was true, but the growling was definitely not helping.

_Alright guys, _She said, because by some strange stroke of fate all of the people inside her head were men. Most of them furiously protective of her. All of those people were also insane. _Shut your eyes!_

She hummed to keep herself company as she stripped off her clothes. The gloves were the first to come off. She hated them. Then the long-sleeved shirt. Then the pants that went past her toes. Then the socks that hit her knees. Then the undershirt that grazed her elbows. Then the cardigan that was closed underneath all of her layers.

For a moment or two she stared at her nearly naked body in the mirror, lamenting over how no one would ever be able to touch it, and then pulled on a thin long sleeved sleep shirt and a pair of dark blue pajama shorts. She sighed again to herself at the sight of her bare legs as she sat down on her bed…

…And then jumped back up again as something poked her…

There was a small music player sitting on her bed with a little piece of paper attached to it-

_Stop feeling sorry for yourself, because if you run away again I will hunt your ass down and punch you in your pretty face. Yes, your boyfriend is in the hospital (Gambit, not Bobby-the-man-slut) _((_And wipe that offended look off your face! You know you like him!)) And Yes, you still can't touch his oh-so-sexiness, but hey, now you have a music player! YAY!_

_I already loaded it up for you._

_Yes, I know you love me._

_-Jubilee_

Rogue laughed out loud, putting on the headphones and scrolled around the library of music for something to listen to.

* * *

Remy staggered out of the med lab, sewn up, taped up, and all around in pain.

"And wear that sling!" Hank shouted after him, throwing a blue sling to hold his arm in.

Remy was pretty sure he made his point about not wearing the sling when he charged it and watched it surrender it's existence to a fiery death. He tore the gauze off of the small hole in his forearm where he had been physically forced to take blood before snorting some obscenities in French and stomping up stairs, feeling a little bit like he forgot something.

Ororo's words still plagued his mind.

_I havta tell her. _He chanted to himself as he stomped up the stairs. _I havta tell her the truth._

He reached the ground level of the mansion and found himself at a fork in the road…

Where the hell was she?

"Goddammit." He grumbled to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair.

_I havta tell her…_

There was some sort of commotion from down the hall and he figured that if he couldn't find her by himself, at least he could ask someone else where she was.

He turned the corner to find a bleach blond girl mostly dressed in white glaring at a purple haired Asian girl from across the room, Piotr was reading a book on the couch, Warren seemed to be dominating the air hockey table and held his hand out to demand the money he was owed by Jubilee, who was sending out horrible glares to him.

"Hey," Warren shrugged as he leafed through the money. "It's not my fault I'm awesome." He grinned.

"It's just awful when billionaires feel the need to cheat other, poorer children, out of their money." Jubilee growled at him.

"I was not cheating!" Warren protested, pretending to look affronted.

The purple haired girl turned and observed him for a moment.

"He was cheating." She said simply in a startling British accent, smirking a little bit at him before turning back to glare at the blond.

"I knew it." Jubilee snorted as she turned around to the doorway. "Gambit!" Her eyes went wide when she saw him leaning in the doorway. "You look awful!"

Remy looked down at himself.

Right, it was the shirt he forgot. He could remember the gloves, but not the shirt. …Logic?…

"I'll be fine, _petit." _He assured her with a winning smile.

_I havta tell Rogue…_

"I do not know if that is the truth." Piotr looked up from his book. "One would think with injury like that you would be wearing sling." He commented.

Remy chuckled a little nervously. "Right…" He cleared his throat and reminded himself that he had a job.

_I havta tell her._

"Have any of you seen Rogue?" He asked, looking around at the faces he knew.

The blond girl snorted from the couch, calling attention to herself for the first time since his entrance to the room and breaking away from her glaring contest with the purple haired girl to turn to him.

"Now, why would a good looking thing like you want to hang around with Killer Kiss," She smirked, slinking her way out of the chair into a standing position and strutted her way over to his side. "When you can have so much more fun with a _touchable _woman?" She reached up to brush some hair out of his face.

He caught her wrist and glared her down.

"Trus' me, _fille." _Remy growled at her deep in his throat, his eyes smoldered. "_Touchable _girls like you are a dime a dozen. Now, a _femme _dat's so perfect de rest a us ain't graced enough t' touch 'er," He let his words settle on the blond. "_Dat's _something I find myself willing t' chase."

He roughly let go of her wrist and officially decided that he didn't like that girl.

She snorted something very un lady-like and stomped out of the room. He was tempted to charge her scrap of fabric that counted as a shirt as she stormed away, but decided against it assuming that Storm's rule about not killing her students functioned for all of them.

"Wow." The purple haired girl watched the blond stomp away. "Any enemy of Emma's is a friend of mine." She grinned and offered Remy her hand. "Betsy Braddock." She introduced.

He was about to take her hand and introduce himself when there was a sharp stabbing pain in his side.

"Goddammit!" He snarled and looked down at the culprit.

"Sorry." Rahne grinned at him as she retracted her hand from poking one of his bruises. "It looked like a rabbit." She explained.

Remy lifted his arm and inspected the bruise she had just poked.

"Well, how 'bout that…" He poked it a little bit too.

"And that one looks like a butterfly!" She poked one on his back. "And a happy face! And a duck!"

He grunted with pain as she prodded a particularly painful bruise, claiming it looked like a whale.

"Look, _petit," _He turned to the little girl gently. "I heard that Jamie was lookin' for you. Why don't you go talk t' him?"

Rahne wrinkled her nose as if she found the idea slightly distasteful.

"He's being weird around me." She said. "Whenever he comes around me he starts stuttering and acting all strange and he won't tell me what's wrong."

"Maybe you should talk to him about it." Remy suggested.

Rahne considered this and then after a short moment nodded her head. "Alright. I hope you feel better Mr. Gambit!" She smiled at him and the trotted off her own way.

Remy sighed heavily, just thankful that this particular encounter with the small girl hadn't lead him to more physical pain than he was already in.

"Anyway," He straightened himself, wrapping his arm around his ribs in a way that indicated he felt he needed to hold them together. He had a mission right now, dammit. "Rogue."

"I don't really think now's the right time to be talk-." Betsy started to say before Jubilee tackled her to the ground.

"You shut your mouth!" She commanded, clamping both of her hands over Betsy's face, who was too shell shocked to react at the moment. Jubilee turned to face a stunned Remy with an almost painfully bright grin. "Go down to the kitchen, take a left to the girl's dorms and the last door to the right at the end of the first hall is Rogue's!" She blurt out so quickly that it took him a few moments to separate the words.

"_Merci!" _He called out as her turned out of the room at a sprint so as not to lose his nerve.

_I havta tell her, I havta tell her, I havta tell her. _He chanted again, following Jubilee's instruction down the halls.

"Rogue?" He knocked on the last door on the right. _I havta tell her. _After a moment of silence he knocked again.

_I havta tell her._

"Rogue?"

He could swear he heard someone moving around in there.

_I havta tell her._

He took a deep breath and called out, "I'm coming in." Before doing just that.

He stood in the doorway for a moment.

_I… I had to do _something…

Something predatory in him clicked from 'off and gentle' to 'on and carnal'.

* * *

Rogue swung out her hips in time with the guitar rifts that opened the song that was creeping into her ears from the headphones and quickly crawling down her spine. Her fingers found themselves tangled in her own hair as she raised her arms above her head.

"_Make up your mind." _She snag along, eyes closed. Her voice blended well with the actual vocals of the song. _"Decide to walk with me. Around the lake tonight."_

Her hips found a more exaggerated swing as she freed one hand from her hair and ran it down her torso.

"_Around the lake tonight, by my side." _She continued to sing, lost in her own moment. No people. No voices. _"By my side."_

She slowly bent her knees together and dropped her hips, raising her hands up above her head again, feeling like she smoldered with heat despite being in her pajamas.

"_I'm not gonna lie. I'll not be a gentlemen. Behind the boathouse, I'll show you my dark secret." _Her voice rang out the words clearly again, barely grazing the same deep tones as the actual vocals, but melding together with them in a mesmerizing way. _"I'm not gonna lie, I want you for mine. My blushing bride. My lover, be my lover, yeah."_

She laughed to herself as she straightened herself into a standing position again, knowing full well that she probably looked ridiculous. But it was _her_room, dammit. She could dance around in a pair of shorts if she wanted to.

Feeling suddenly as if someone was watching her, Rogue opened her eyes and nearly caught herself screaming with shock.

He was leaning against her wall, bare chest exposed with such an array of colors that he almost blended in to the darkness. His red eyes were two beacons of fire in the shadows that covered his face. The door to the hallway was slightly ajar next to him, being the only proof that he hadn't just appeared there. His eyes flicked up and down her form, taking in the information on her bare legs, which he had never seen before.

The smoldering of his eyes seemed to grow more intense.

"Y' have a beautiful singing voice, _chere." _Remy purred with a wolfish smile. He peeled away from the wall and closed the door behind him with a resounding _click. _"But I liked the dancing much more."

…_Don't be afraid…_

The song continued without the aide of her voice in her ears.

Rogue retreated a few steps as he took a step forward, fully aware of how much of her deadly skin was exposed.

…_I didn't mean to scare you…_

She forgot how to breathe as he planted both of his hands on either side of her head after tugging the headphones off of her ears so that they were hooked around her neck, pinning her to the wall and scorching her with intense heat that radiated off of his body in waves.

He was scorching her.

She found herself savoring in the burn.

"You're too close." She mumbled in an effort to protect him, caught up in the hazy warmth that surrounded him.

"I'd like to be closer." He rumbled with amusement. He pressed his chest into her so that the only barrier between him and her was the thin shirt that she had slipped on earlier.

… _So help me Jesus…_

She found that she could still hear the music drifting up from the speakers in the headphones.

Her knees nearly buckled and she started getting light headed as he pressed his knee into the wall between her legs and ran one gloved hand down the side of her face.

She closed her eyes and unconsciously arched her back to savor the small touch.

…_I can promise you…_

Remy leaned into her so that she could feel his breath beating at her throat, which, out of pure physical reaction, she had angled her chin up to expose to him. She wanted him to kiss her there, or anywhere really, just so long as she could touch him.

…_That you'll stay as beautiful…_

"I don't want to hurt you." She breathed, remembering what exactly it was that was holding her back.

…_With dark hair, and soft skin…_

"Do you trust me?' He asked her for the second time since he had met her.

"Y-yes?" She stuttered.

…_Forever…_

"Was that a question?" He chuckled throatily, abandoning his hold on the wall in favor of slipping his hands around her waist.

His fingers traced down her spine and she shivered.

…_Forever…_

"Do you trust me?" He asked again.

All she could manage was a "Mmm-hmm." As his fingers traced patterns in her back, distracting her from the ability to form coherent words.

…_Make up your mind. Make up your mind…_

"How much?" He breathed hotly on her throat again.

…_And I'll promise you…_

"Enough." She groaned out loud as his hands ran the length of her spine again and then trailed lightly over her behind.

…_I will treat you well, my sweet angel…_

He grinned his devil's grin as he knocked her wobbly knees out from underneath her with his own. Rogue found herself stuck between a bed and a Cajun.

.Not that she was complaining.

…_So help me Jesus!…_

His hands switched from exploring her back to running down her sides and across her stomach, barely calling themselves back as they reached the edge of her shorts.

The intimacy of the situation crawled under her skin and made her shudder with a desire she couldn't instigate.

…_Give it up to me. Give it up to me..._

She barely held back the urge to rune her bare hands down his torso, which seemed to be constructed of hard surfaces and clean lines.

…_Do you wanna be…_

Her back arched again as one of his hands 'accidentally' grazed her chest, and instead of chuckling at her like she had half expected the blazing well of heat in front of her to do, he didn't something she wouldn't have ever expected in her wildest dreams.

…_My angel?…_

In her state of mid-gasp, he crushed his lips against hers. The raw passion of the kiss demanded her own physical response, which she gladly gave.

It took a few moments for her powers to kick in, and even when they did, absorbing him was the equivalent of oil in water. She could feel the two components combine, but neither of the elements seemed to affected by the interaction.

…_So help me!…_

'She pushed him off roughly.

They both perched themselves on either side of the bed, panting.

"What did you do?" She asked, slightly thunderstruck.

"Chapstick." He popped his lips.

Rogue felt a little dumb. "Why didn't I think of that?"

He grinned and was on her once again.

…_Be my angel?…_

She smiled against his lips, though it didn't protect him from all contact with her.

…_Be my angel?…_

Like the wrists.

He had done nothing to protect the wrists. …

…Which brushed against her thigh…

…_Do you wanna die?…_

Rogue forced him off of her in a hot second, barely getting anything off of him through the very small absorption.

"Are y' alright?" She asked desperately, speech slightly impaired by a minor Cajun accent.

…_I promise you…_

"I'm fine." He grinned at her.

…_I will treat you well…_

"Kiss dat knocks y' out, no?" He chuckled and tried to move forward to her again.

…_My sweet angel…_

"No." She said firmly, planting a hand firmly on his chest. "I don't care how damn sexy you are! Ah'm not gonna kill yah!"

…_So help me Jesus…_

"Y' think I'm sexy?" He grinned again.

Her face flushed bright red.

"Out!" She commanded, pointing her finger out the door.

…_Jesus…_

He pretended to get up and fall back down.

"Oh no!" He cried out in mock pain. "My shoulder! I can't move! Damn!" He settled himself on her bed. "Looks like I'll just havta stay here."

"And where the hell am I supposed to sleep?" She demanded.

He threw a blanket over his bare chest and patted the bed beside him.

She rolled her eyes before crawling up next to him and settling beside him, not admitting that she really didn't want him to leave. Even if she didn't get to touch him.

…_Jesus…_

"You're hella annoying, you know that?" She asked as she wriggled her way as close to him as possible and rested her head against his covered chest gently.

"But y' think I'm sexy." She could feel him grinning at her.

"Maybe a little bit." She allowed, unhooking the headphones from around her neck and reminding herself to thank Jubilee later as she tossed the music player onto the dresser beside the bed.

"A little bit!" He scoffed as he wrapped his arms around her. "Woman, you lie like a rug."

Rogue laughed at him

… _Jesus. …_

They both eventually drifted off.

Rogue, grinning to herself.

Remy, harassing himself once he finally remembered what he had gone up there to do. Just before he fell asleep he solidified his resolve to tell her tomorrow.

"Yes," He yawned as he watched the sleeping girl in his arms. "Tomorrow."

_

* * *

I admit that I'm no Jane Austen at Hanky Panky, but that was way better than my first attempt… which we aren't going to talk about… I dunno, I just get all red a giggly. So I enlisted The Toadies to help! (It seemed like a good idea at the time…)_

_My, my. A chapter without Riptide. What on earth could our crazy psycho killer be up to now?_


	18. Chapter 18

"While the mansion's asleep, Riptide will creep." Riptide chuckled to himself as he easily hacked onto one of the computers and started scanning through the profiles of the students of the Xavier Institute, slowly scrawling down names on his arm in tiny lettering under the list _'People Cajun Likes'_

_1. Hot brunette w/ white streak (Power of absorption through skin contact)_

_2. Headmistress w/ white hair (Power to control weather)_

_3. Kid I met in the hallway (Multiplies)_

_4. Kid I met in the hallway's girlfriend (Shape shifts)_

_5. Chick with the yellow jacket (Fireworks)_

_6. Intimidating Russian (Metallic armor in place of skin)_

_7. Guy with wings (Flight)_

_8. Claw dude (Are they even friends?) (Healing factor)_

He looked over the list and smiled. Eight people were more than enough to get the job done. Seven people if you took out the girl with the white streak who was not, under any circumstances, allowed to be harmed. 2-8 were expendable, but Gambit and the girl were irreplaceable.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance, LeBeau." Riptide mumbled to himself as he erased the computer's memory and shut it down. "To bad Harpoon beat me to the punch, you cocky bastard. You should have kept your mouth shut. You should have just let them die, but _noooo, _you had to save the girl. And look where that got you. Speared in the chest. How the hell do you survive something like that?" He continued to ramble like a crazy man confined by himself for to long. Which wasn't far from the truth. Riptide thrived on action and violence, the idle task of waiting left him in a drought of either and it was making him restless. Two more days and he could satisfy his thirst for blood. Two more days and he could take down this entire building.

The very idea made him smile.

* * *

A slow creak of a door being opened drew his attention away from the computer screen. The hunter inside of him stirred and he blood lust became evident as he followed the noise stealthily down the hall out side of the computer lab.

If one thing could be said of Emma Frost it's that she's a vindictive bitch. This instance in her life was no exception. No one turned her down and got away with it unscathed. This Gambit fellow simply needed to be shown exactly how imperfect this creature he had awarded his affections to actually was.

Not that she really wanted him anymore, it was a matter of pride. And for Emma Frost being rejected for a woman that couldn't touch was a crushing blow that she was not going to take lying down.

The difference between her and Bobby Drake was while Bobby Drake would confront someone outright to defend his pride, Emma would sneak and cheat and sleaze until hers was avenged. And vengeance was a dish best served with lots of screaming and perhaps some permanent mental damage.

She creeped down the hallway, cringing as her door creaked when she opened it.

"Damn it all to hell!" She snarled under her breath, her voice slightly tinged with a British accent.

She stood still for a moment, frozen in the hallway, waiting to see if anyone had heard her and was willing to investigate. She was just thankful that the prissy tabby cat known as the Wolverine was out, or she would already be in major trouble for being outside of her room so late at night. After a few moments of tense silence, she continued down the hall to outside of Rogue's room.

She tapped her finger nails on the wood of the door for a moment, evil smile curling across her lips before she held her hand up to her temple as she began to concentrate on the mind she could sense on the inside of the room. There was an odd ripple in the psychic aura around her, as if there were someone else in the room she couldn't detect, but she didn't allow that to phase her as she hacked into the runaway's mind.

Flashes of a dark nightmare corrupted her thought process as she probed Rogue's thought.

"Ah!" She gasped and held her head. There was so much blood in her nightmare. So much rage and hate. "Uhg," She shook of the creeps in her skin and set back about her task. "Scary monsters."

She wasn't even aware that the monsters plaguing Rogue's mind weren't even the scariest monsters or nightmares in that room.

She was concentrating to hard on revenge to hear the footfalls traveling down the hallway towards her.

"All done." She sang after a few hard minutes as she reeled back in her telepathy and hoped that she could be there when Rogue discovered all of the new places he mental walls had been relocated to.

Emma laughed to herself airily and turned to go back to her room, nearly colliding with a broad-chested man with white hair and sharp eyes.

Before she could scream out in fright, his hand was at her throat, cutting off all oxygen.

"Tut, tut," He clucked his tongue at her. "It's not safe for little girls like yourself to be wandering around by yourselves."

She clawed at the fingers around her pale neck to no avail.

He squeezed.

_

* * *

Plot monster goes 'Rawr'._

_Short? Yes. Essential? Ab-so-damn-lutely. Scale from 1-10, how mad are you going to be if I just killed Emma off?_

_Next Chapter is written and so fantastically epic I couldn't with clear conscience pair it in the same text grouping as Emma's bitchyness. Hell, I'm so damn excited about the next chapter I'll probably post it tonight! *wriggles around in her chair with excitement* EPIC I TELL YOU! EPIIIIC!_


	19. Chapter 19

_JAMIE: This is me flashing my Artistic License. *pulls out wallet and flips open to official looking card* Don't beat me up!_

_PLOT MONSTER: grrrr…._

_JAMIE: What do you think, my little plot monster? To kill Emma, or not to kill Emma?_

_PLOT MONSTER: *snarls*_

_JAMIE: That's what I thought._

* * *

The sewers were dark. Darker than the nighttime sky above, shrouded in the shadows of the city as well as the layers of dirt and cement that separated them from the outside world. Being there right now felt like being confined to hell.

The dead bodies added to that effect.

"Why?" He rasped.

He looked down at his hands, which were covered in blood. Every inch of him was covered in blood.

"That isn't for you to know." The curator of this hell assured him. His cold voice made him shiver.

His eyes wandered to the bodies. So many of them.

"You lied to me."

"I'm a liar."

Both of them whipped their heads around when there was the sound of whimpering. Hope blossomed in his chest and before he knew what he was doing, he was running towards the sound.

"Stop!" Commanded the curator.

He was to far gone to listen.

The whimpering continued.

"You two, find him! Kill him if necessary!" The cold voice crawled down the passage ways after him, sending out orders to the people who had destroyed every living thing down here.

All, except maybe one.

"_Petit?" _He called out, looking for the source of the whimpers. "_Petit, _scream if y' can hear me!"

There was a soft moan from underneath one of the bodies, and he took that as an affirmative. He clawed his way through the mountain of lost souls to find a little girl with pink hair and bones sticking out of her face at odd angles, sobbing into her own arms, which also had bones growing out of them. She couldn't have been older than five.

"Are y' alright?" He asked, so desperately happy to find someone alive that he forgot what he looked like.

"Don't touch me!" She shrieked and scooted away from him.

"I'm not gonna hurt you." He assured her with the biggest smile he could manage. Which was hard to pull off as he was almost gagging on the smells of dirt and gore.

The little girl didn't seem to believe him. She stood her ground.

"If I was gonna hurt you, don't you think I already woulda done it?" He smiled again, this time more genuinely. She seemed to consider this for a moment before crawling into his outstretched arms. "I'm gonna get y' outa here." He promised her.

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Someone growled as they tore the little girl out of his arm.

"No!" She screamed and he immediately found an entire deck of cards being charged in between his fingers.

"Let. Her. Go." He growled, the glow from the cards casting demonic shadows over his face.

The tall feral man holding the girl with one hand only laughed at him.

"Can't." He tossed the child from one hand to the other as if she were the ball of yarn to his catty appearance. "Bossman said no survivors." He raised up his hand in a menacing gesture, claws extending in front of the girl's face. "So-."

_BOOM._

The girl quickly leaped out of the feral man's grip when the charged suit of cards exploded against his chest and scampered back into the open arms of the man who had already saved her twice.

He bundled her up against his chest and sprinted down the sewers, almost losing his footing on the blood slicked ground several times. Echoing footsteps followed him.

"_Petite," _He said to the little girl hurriedly as he rounded another corner in the maze of darkness to find a ladder. "I want y' to get up there and I want y' t' run. Run until y' can't run no more. Never look back, y' hear me? Not once."

"But," She whimpered as he pushed her up the ladder. "What about you?"

"Not once!" He repeated.

She nodded and used the bones on her forearm to dislodge and replace the storm drain.

He breathed easier once she disappeared, but she wasn't out of hot water yet. They could still catch up to her if they were fast enough.

He charged another deck of cards in his hands, fully intent on robbing them of that opportunity.

"Bad news, Gambit." Someone breathed from directly behind him. He turned on his heel to find Harpoon glowering at him, his namesake held firmly in his hand, fluctuating different colors as he charged it for different effects. "You've been cut from the deck."

Before he could react, the harpoon was lodged in his chest. He gagged on the rush of blood against his tongue and bared his teeth in the face of the agonizing pain. A numbness ran throughout his body as Harpoon himself twisted the weapon so that it caused more damage before slowly dragging it down the length of his torso and finally surrendering his hold on it.

Gambit fell to the ground. He watched his own blood pool around him. He felt his own gasping breaths wrack his torn chest. He listened to his heartbeat slow to almost nonexistence.

_So this is how I die. _He thought. His vision started to dim. _Not as a thief. Not as a hero. Not as a murderer. _Other voices could be heard above the fading of his heart. _What am I?_

"Is he dead?" Vertigo sneered.

"Who knows?" Riptide shrugged. "Quite honestly, I thought the guy couldn't be hurt without making at least _one _card pun."

"Actually," Harpoon cut in. "I took care of that this time. …It kinda felt pretty cool…"

Gambit cast his fading sight down to his hands. The puddle of blood beside him cast his own reflection back at him in the dank lighting.

Eyes.

Red on black eyes.

Demon eyes. Devil eyes. Sinner's eyes.

_This is not how I die. _He resolved. _This is not a demons' death. Letting himself die in the slew of the sewers. Demons spit fire._

"What should we do with him?" Sabertooth growled before giving off a muffled yelp that only occurs when one witnesses the reanimation of the dead.

Everyone standing around him took a step back out of shock as he dragged himself into a sitting position and shuffled a bloodstained deck of cards.

"What are you doing?" Vertigo yelped as well, eyes wide.

"Spitting fire." He grunted as he charged the deck of cards to the point where their atomic structure was questionable. He gave his personal bastardized grin, which was only enhanced by his red teeth. "52 card pick up anyone?"

Fire and smoke rocketed out of the storm drain behind him as he dragged his body out onto the rain washed street. He continued to drag himself to his bike, which he had concealed in the shadows next to the entrance to the Morlocks' lair, but was now quite a ways off.

Through out his painfully long journey of crawling and weeping in pain he constructed a sort of makeshift plan that consisted of one word -

_Stormy._

She would help him. She wouldn't ask questions. Hell, she'd probably keep him off of death's doorstep for a couple of days…

He tried to mount his motorcycle, only to lose balance and fall off again, hitting his head on the hard, cold ground.

…That is, if he could keep himself off of death's doorstep until he got to her…

He collected himself again, shedding his coat and tying it tightly around the deepest part of the wound to cut off blood loss and keep himself in one piece.

Taking a deep breath that sent a stab of pain through out his entire body, he attempted to climb onto the motorcycle again

* * *

In the real world Remy was thrown out of his nightmares by the thrashing of the girl laying beside him. His sweat slicked chest was heaving so heavily with his gasps for air that he thought for a moment he might have cracked his ribs.

He quickly ran his fingers down his chest to check and see if the scar was still there to confirm that he'd actually made it out of hell alive.

The raised scar tissue dragged against his fingers and he breathed easier for a moment.

_Fear. Hatred. Lust for vengeance. Desperation. Heartbreak._

He cried out in pain as he was assaulted by a wave of primal emotion, the origins of which were she small woman beside him, still fighting away her dream demons.

"Sh," He tried to soothe as he wrapped his arms around her still sleeping form and ran his hand down her hair in a comforting repetitive gesture after he regained his bearings. "Calm down, _chere," _He mumbled into her ear. "Calm down…"

He vaguely wondered what was so terrifying in _her _dream world.

* * *

She struggled against the restraints, internally screaming _GET THEM OFF! LET ME OUT! GET THEM OUT! _Searing heat invaded her body without her permission. They had told her it would hurt, but this… this was beyond pain.

"_When it starts, whatever it is the reason you're doing this, focus on that, maybe it will help." _The woman had advised.

Her reasons were simple.

Kill. Victor.

Maim. Destroy. Obliterate. Make sure he paid for what he had taken from her.

Her body rocked with the tremors of pain as the god awful heat spread through her body. She couldn't stop it. There _was _no stopping it.

Gasping for air was pointless seeing as she was pinned down in water. Attempting to scream had similar hindrances. Simultaneously she was burning from the inside out and drowning in the frigid water.

Finally, her thrashing stopped.

Her attempts at breathing stopped.

Her silent screams stopped.

The erratic beeping that had been the personification of her heart beat stopped.

"Well, I guess he can die." Somebody chuckled.

This comment was met by a few moments of broken silence as everyone grappled with the idea of failure. Failure. The experiment was a failure. _She_was a failure.

_Beep-beep._

Attention was drawn back to the heart monitor as the dead line perked up a little bit.

_Beep-beep._

"Come on, old friend." Someone mumbled under their breath. "Come back."

_Beep-beep._

"Heart rate rising." A feminine voice sounded astonished.

_Beep-beep._

"Adamantium reservoir is depleted."

_Beep-beep._

"No rejection…" Someone else inhaled. "Procedure completed…"

_Beep-beep._

"We did it." A voice was close to laughter.

_Beep-beep._

"…We did it…" Stunned conformation.

_Beep-beep._

"Are we taking him to The Island?"

_Beep-beep._

"The Island? No." That idea was promptly rejected. "The bonding works. We use his DNA for the eleventh. Erase his memory."

Her eyes snapped open. Her teeth ground together. Unbreakable claws suddenly found themselves protruding out of her fists. The beeping of the heart monitor was suddenly off the charts.

Erase her memory?

_Hell. No._

"I think he heard you…"

She tore the bonds on her wrist and came out of the water screaming.

Rogue screamed herself awake. The air smelled of spices and bourbon. Her first reaction off the bat was to pin the body that was practically on top of her to the wall.

"_Chere," _Remy gasped staring into the eyes of the sweaty girl, his breathing hindered by the forearm pressed into his throat.

Her eyes were brown.

"_Chere," _He tried again. "I need y' t' calm down…"

"Who are you, bub?" She growled. Her voice was unusually deep and guttural.

"You… know me." He gasped again, starting to feel dizzy from lack of oxygen.

She sniffed the air around her and held a moment of silence that hinted she was listening for something.

"Rogue." Remy attempted to reach her the same way he had last time.

"Rogue!" She looked around wildly before slitting her eyes at him. "What did you do with the kid?" She demanded, practically in his face. Her brown eyes flashed with animal fury.

He reached out slowly, very slowly and picked a lock of white hair out of the slick amount available and held it out in front of her eyes.

"You _are _Rogue…" He reiterated for her benefit.

Her brown eyes went wide and slowly faded back to green.

"Oh no…" She mumbled and dropped him to the ground where he coughed for a moment and then went momentarily limp.

She backed up into a wall.

_What's the matter, Marie? _One of the nameless voices taunted. _Can't handle your own crazy?_

_Here she is, listening to the voices in her head. So sad._

_True. She is rather pathetic._

Shut up!

_Make us. Oh, wait. That's right, you can't, Marie._

_Mutants. Always thinking they have all this power, and most of them don't even know how to control it._

_I knew I should have killed this one when I had the chance._

"Logan? Please say something." She begged out loud for someone to interject. "Erik! John! Somebody, please!"

_Can't fight your own battles, Marie?_

_Are you just that weak?_

"Pete? Bobby?" She went to her knees. "Please…"

_What if they're gone, Marie? Never coming back. What if it's just us in here?_

_You and your innocent victims._

_Do you even remember our faces?_

"Make them stop, make them stop…" She put her hands on her ears.

_I didn't think so._

She started to scream, but was cut off.

_No one's coming. _They told her.

"What… What should I do?" She asked them, desperate for some sort of guidance.

_Run._

_Everyone and everything you touch wilts away into nothingness. Even on the streets you accidentally brushed too many people. Do you know where those people are now?_

She nodded, cold tears streaking down her face. It wasn't fair that on the outside the people around her hated her and the people inside her head were out to get her.

_They're vegetables._

She started sobbing.

_Buck up, kiddo. Grab some gloves and some pants and be on your way. They won't miss you._

Her eyes were stuck on Remy's limp form.

_He won't miss you, Marie._

The voices didn't lie. They had found out long ago that the truth always hurt her more than lies.

She didn't even bother with pants or gloves. She could freeze to death for all she cared.

She opened the door and started to run down the hall when she tripped over something, grazing the heels of her palms and knees on the hard wood floor as she went down.

"Ow…" She whimpered, still weeping as she cast her gaze down to see what she had tripped on.

Emma Frost was sprawled out on the ground, eyes closed, growing bruises at her throat.

Rogue screamed as loud as she was physically allowed and scrambled to get away.

"Rogue?" Someone called out from the end of the hall. She turned to see Warren, who was apparently the first person to care enough about her frantic screaming to come investigate.

Warren saw Emma's body and then turned to see the look in Rogue's eyes, and though he didn't fully comprehend the string of events here, he knew that look.

"Rogue," He took a step towards her. "It's alright. I don't know what happened, but it's going to be alright."

_He's a liar. _Someone hissed in her ear. _He won't miss you. He thinks you hurt her. Run._

Rogue was up in a flash and sprinted down the hallway in the opposite direction of Warren's ascent.

"Somebody!" Warren shouted as he chased after her. "Help!"

Betsy and Jubilee came stumbling out of their rooms as Warren tore past.

"What's going on?" Betsy asked stupidly.

Jubilee shrugged with a yawn .

Rogue rounded another corner going top speed.

_Run, run, run, as fast as you can. _The voices taunted.

"Shut up!" She screamed, gasping for air in between sobs.

"Rogue!" Someone shouted from behind her.

_And you hurt the boy. He kissed you and you tried to kill him…_

"I didn't mean to!"

_You didn't even have to touch him. You _are _poison, Marie. Not just your skin, _you_._

"Make them stop!" She shrieked, finally driven to her knees

"Betsy!" Warren called. "Can you do anything?" He asked nervously as he risked putting his hands on the shrieking girl's shoulders.

"Turn them off." She begged through the tears. "Make them stop whispering to me."

"She needs to calm down first!" Betsy said as she dragged on her robe and kneeled next to Warren. "I can't use my telepathy on her if there is so much emotion clouding her judgment!"

Remy LeBeau, fresh from his unconsciousness, shoved them both out of the way.

He winced at the amount of emotion radiating off of her, but gritted his teeth and sank down to her level. He couldn't be a thief right now. He couldn't tell her that he'd been accessory to hell, or a scientist's plaything, or even a murderer. Not now. Not ever.

He refused to see her hurt like this ever again.

"_Chere," _He mumbled to her, rubbing her shoulders.

"Make them stop," She muttered, hands on her ears. "They hate me."

"Who hates you?" He asked, despite the utter shock that _anyone _could hate her.

"The people," She sobbed. "The people in my head. They stay there. They don't wanna be there but they stay. An' they did something with Logan and Erik and Johnny. I can't find 'em."

_Us? _They sounded affronted. _We didn't touch them!_

She screamed.

"Stop talking to me!"

"Sh," Remy put his hand on her cheek but she seemed unresponsive to the touch. "I'll make everything okay."

"Do you promise?" She asked, seeming to calm down a little bit.

"Yes." He vowed.

In the back of his mind he could hear a growling voice telling him not to make promises he couldn't keep.

_

* * *

JAMIE: Holy shitballs, plot monster! What _have _I gotten myself into?_

_PLOT MONSTER: *growls*_

_JAMIE: … Did you like my extra-long-I-apologize-the-last-chapter-was-so-short chapter?…_

_PLOT MONSTER: *hisses*_

_JAMIE: Heyheyhey! No need for that kind of language!_


	20. Chapter 20

_Here's what I want you to do real fast._

_Put out your hand, palm down. Good, now slap your other hand, palm down as well, on top of that hand. Rotate your thumbs._

_That's what this chapter reads like. I tried to fix it, but GODDAMMIT, IT DIDN'T WANT TO BE FIXED! This chapter was probably the worst one for that that I've ever written. (not counting any that included road trip humor… like I said… we don't talk about that)_

* * *

Logan smiled to himself and shook some broken glass out of his hair as he rolled up to the mansion. The trail he had had on this 'Riptide' character had gone cold after his remains weren't found among the desecrated building. As far as Logan could tell, the man had just disappeared.

So, he'd stopped at a bar to perk himself up.

It wasn't the beer that had put him in a good mood, though that was a playing factor, but the feel of his knuckles pounding into deserving flesh just made him happy.

He whistled a jaunty tune as he parked his bike and shed off his jacket in the garage before walking back out into the sweet night air and up the steps of the mansion.

"Honey, I'm home." He called out jokily. Goodness, he must have been in a better mood than he thought. Jokes. Out loud! That had nothing to do with gutting people!

He chuckled a little bit to himself and tried to remember exactly how many alcoholic beverages he had consumed to achieve this level of cheer.

Not that it mattered. They'd be out of his system in a few moments.

He was still laughing a little bit when he turned the corner into one of the media rooms and found a weary looking Ororo Munroe sitting stonily in one of the over stuffed chairs.

She looked up to him with worn eyes.

His smile faded away from existence.

"What happened?"

* * *

The look of the unconscious girl on the bed nearly crippled Logan. Her brown and white hair was tucked behind her ears in a fashion that was so unnaturally placid it made her look dead, her skin was three shades paler than he had ever seen it before, and her normally bright green eyes were closed.

"She had some sort of mental break," Explained the purple haired telepath who was standing next to her. Logan was positive that he knew her name, but was too distracted at the moment to think thoughts beyond '_When I find out who did this to her…'_

The girl involuntarily whimpered from her unconsciousness and the hand clutching hers wrapped itself tighter around her fingers.

"What's she feeling?" Ororo asked anxiously from beside Logan.

Logan was about to respond with a gruffly sarcastic 'Well, due to a slight case of unconsciousness, I can't really give you a straight up answer' but was cut off by the Cajun.

"She's scared." He mumbled, running the pad of his thumb over her knuckles. "An' confused. She don't understand what happened. I'm tryin' t' make sure dat goes away..."

Logan looked at the young man skeptically. How'd he know? How did Ororo know that he knew?

"She's not the only one." Warren commented from the back of the room, casting his gaze over to the comatose form of Emma Frost on the other side of the med lab.

"Can you fix her?" Logan asked the purple haired girl bluntly. He didn't care about the Ice Queen, he didn't even really care about anyone who he would have to threaten, beat, or kill to make his kid better. He just wanted it done.

Betsy considered this.

"I can go into her head so long as she stays calm. Maybe I'll be able to repair any damage done, I'm not making any promises." She warned. "At the very least I'll be able to replay her memories and find out what happened."

Logan was about to growl out about how that wasn't good enough, but Storm put a restraining hand on his forearm before he could act rashly.

"See what you can do, Betsy." She said solemnly.

Betsy nodded, snapping on a pair of latex gloves before she placed her fingers on Rogue's temples. The last thing she consciously felt was the seeping feeling of her broadcasting herself into another person's mind.

* * *

Rogue sat on the ground in the middle of the empty hallway of the Xavier Institute, confused as to why it was so empty. And cold.

Little ice crystals clung to the walls and carpet.

"Hello?" She called out tentatively, breath fogging the air in front of her. It was so lonely here. She knew that she _should _be feeling afraid and confused, and she was a little bit, but her emotions felt distant to her. Sort of the way she felt when she stared into Remy's eyes too long. Like, there was no emotion in the world other than what he wanted her to feel.

And so, she was calm.

But… Remy wasn't anywhere in sight…

"Marie? Is that you, little one?" Someone called back. "Come here."

Rogue was feeling very small and alone in this place, so she willingly followed the voice. For some strange reason, she couldn't remember her way around. The hallways were mazes. The rooms were traps.

"Over here, Marie." It cooed.

"I-I can't find you…" Rogue wandered around the dark passages blindly.

"Hurry up, Marie."

"We're over here, Marie."

"Come and find us, Marie."

Rogue stumbled down another hallway, then another, and another, following the eerie musical sounds of the voices calling out for her until she stumbled into another hallway. A black and broken door sat at the end of the hallway. The wood was rotting away and the hinges were rusty. The knob itself looked tarnished and abused, but for some strange reason, it seemed to call out to her, beg her to come and release the secrets kept behind the door.

"In here, Marie!" They called to her from behind the door. "Come and find us!"

She saw the reflection of her hand in the dirty metal of the knob as she reached towards i.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, luv." A hand wrapped around her wrist, stopping her motion.

A bare hand.

"No!" Rogue screamed, snapping back to reality as she jumped away from the person and the door. "Don't touch me!" She shouted in a panic. "Never_ever _touch meh!"

"It's alright," The young woman with purple hair tried to soothe her.

"What did the girl ever do to you, Marie?" The voices brought up their cat-calls. Rogue sank to the floor and put her hands over her ears.

"Were you going to kill her, Marie? Is that it? Were you going to kill her with your poison?" One asked.

"I don't mean tah…" She mumbled.

"Water doesn't mean to drown it's victims. Cold doesn't mean to freeze them. Fire doesn't mean to burn them. It's just in their nature to kill." One of the cooed. "Just. Like. Poison."

"You're jus a leech, Marie." One of them sang. "A poor, pathetic, leech."

"Please make them stop." Rogue mumbled.

Betsy inspected the door as Rogue whimpered on the ground.

"This is troublesome." She muttered and ran her hand over the cracking wood. "This shouldn't be like this…"

"Marie…" The voices started again.

"SHUT UP!" Betsy screamed at them, losing her concentration.

For the moment, they listened.

"I think I can fix this…" Betsy muttered as she turned back to the door. Rogue watched the strange woman put her hand on the door, and with what seemed like an enormous amount of effort, the wood of the door faded away from black and back to a brown, the hinges and knob regained their shine. The voices were muffled behind it.

As Betsy lifted her hand away from the door, something entirely unexpected happened.

A butterfly flew out of her palm and fluttered around the door.

"What?" Rogue asked in a daze as the butterfly flitted around in front of her face. "What's goin' on?"

"Sorry about the butterfly." Betsy smiled. "I'm not strong enough to alter the mind without leaving my mark. Xavier could do it, I'm sure, but I can't. Usually telepaths leave their mark, in my case a butterfly, but it could be an animal, or a small object, or maybe even-."

"Frost?" Rogue asked as she ran her fingers across the ice crystals in the carpet.

Betsy looked down at the ice, noticing it for the first time. Her eyes narrowed. _Frost._

"So… I'm in mah mind?" Rogue asked before Betsy could start again.

Betsy nodded.

"Why doesn't the Institute work the same way it did?" Rogue asked, and then at Betsy's quizzical look, elaborated. "All the halls are different… An' if it was _my _mind… wouldn't _I _know the way?" She sounded skeptical. Rogue didn't have much experience with this 'trapped inside of the mind' thing. As soon as her skepticism arose, however, it faded and left her naked fear. "Are… Are they gone?" She looked at the door.

"No…" Betsy shook her head sadly. "Muffled, but not gone entirely."

Rogue nodded.

"An'… what about Logan an' Erik an' Johnny an' all tha rest… what happened tah them?"

Betsy raised her eyebrows. "They're gone?"

Rogue nodded again, wiping some burning tears from her eyes. "Usually they fight with the voices… Tell 'em tah shut up. They don't let them talk tah me ugly. But… but they went somewhere… they left meh…" She sniffed. "Just like the voices said they would…"

Betsy turned to the walls and traced her fingers down the layers of frost.

"I assure you, luv," She turned back to Rogue and pulled her to her feet. "If they went anywhere, it wasn't because they wanted to. Would you like to find them?"

Rogue nodded eagerly. "I honestly don't know what'd Ah'd do without them. When Ah was alone on tha streets, or here, even, Logan and Erik would tell me stories and John would tell me jokes, Bobby would fight with 'im, but even their banter was pretty funny, and then Pete would step in and tell 'em all tah stop fightin' and let meh get some sleep…" Rogue smiled to herself.

"You have an interesting relationship with these psyches." Betsy commented as they made their way down the halls. Betsy followed the trail of frost.

"They're my friends when nobody else will be." Rogue said sadly.

Betsy felt a stab of guilty sadness for the girl. While she had never herself taunted Rogue or mocked her, she hadn't ever stopped anyone else who had.

The trail of frost tapered off next to a sturdy looking steel door.

"The hell?" Rogue put her hand on the door. "Ah've never seen this befor'." There were a few stifled growls, screams of fury, and threats projected from behind it.

"That's because it's not supposed to be here." Betsy clenched her fists and made up a remarkably colorful list of things she was going to do to a certain blond telepath when she got out of Rogue's mind. "Hold on, luv," Betsy braced her hands against the door. "This is going to hurt."

* * *

Remy clutched his fingers around Rogue's hand tighter as she started to writhe in pain under the telepath's fingers.

"What's going on?" Wolverine demanded.

"_Merde, _she's hurtin'!" Remy groaned as the waves of pain radiated off of her and struck him.

"Will she get through it?" Storm asked apprehensively.

Just before he could say anything, Betsy screamed slightly and stumbled away from Rogue."_Holy-Dear-Lord-Jesus-Mary-Mother-Of-God_," She muttered a spastic blur of curses as she scrambled away from Rogue, wrenching Remy out of contact with her. Just as he was about to protest, everyone in the room's attention was captured by Rogue.

Her skin started to slick over with a metallic material.

Piotr Rasputin, standing in the back, paled.

The scrapes on her hands and knees closed up.

Logan stood, mouth agape.

The table underneath her body iced over, the fire that Hank was working with in the back of the lab flared, the metal walls of the room contorted . Slowly, as Rogue's body stopped convulsing in pain her skin returned to normal, the table thawed, and the fire was coaxed back into submission.

Batsy Braddock, panting on the ground, looked up to see the six faces of the unamused friends of Rogue.

"You mind explaining what the hell just happened?" Jubilee demanded, looking from Betsy, to the still unconscious Rogue, to what looked like hand prints in the manipulated walls.

_

* * *

AUTHOR BABBLES-_

_Somebody asked me about where exactly I'm pulling my facts from- because I set it up like it was going to be pretty in sync with the movies and the totally disregarded the fact that not only did Betsy and Jamie show up in the third movie, but Jamie was thirty and Betsy died. That's bacuse I don't really consider X3 a movie… just kind of like that brother you never tell people you have like-_

_X1- Wow, I was fantastic! You know who plays Xavier? GODDAMN JEAN LUC PICCARD! THAT'S WHO! And Wolverine's a Broadway singer!_

_X2- Stryker! Nightcrawler! Deathstrike! Jean dies!_

_Origins- I lack logic, but MOFO! I HAD GAMBIT!_

_Fan-… What about him?_

_*everyone turns to look at X3, busy turning Rogue into a whiney biotch, making Magneto and Mystique not cool and killing off Scott and the Professor*_

_X1-…We don't talk about him…_

_Jamie- I shall only take two facts from the atrocity known as X-men 3: The Last Stand- Uno! Scott and Xavier are dead. Dos! There was a cure (this will come into play later, and even then I will slander the crap out of it)_

_I hope that clears things up C:_


	21. Chapter 21

_Have I ever told you guys how much I hate explaining my madness? No? I hate explaining my madness. It's all awkward. I like action and drama and stabbing people! Not frikkin Betsy explaining to everyone that Emma's a bitch. ('Cause we all already know that…)_

_So I had another case of the 'GODDAMIT! HOW MANY TIMES ANM I GOING TO HAVE TO REWRITE THIS CHAPTER?'s._

_Ah well. *sigh* Since there's no going around it… Hey, how 'bout some chuckles before everything goes to hell?_

* * *

Remy ran his thumb over Rogue's knuckles again, wishing more than anything that she was awake and that he could touch her to comfort her. He could feel the glares directed at him from Wolverine, who was undoubtedly trying to think of some way that this was Remy's fault.

Why?

Well, Remy putting his arm around Rogue's waist- Cause for death.

Remy going to Rogue's aide after Wolverine had accidentally stabbed her- Cause for death.

Remy being the one to find Rogue when she started losing it the first time while not wearing a shirt- Cause for death.

_Thank God _he hadn't figured out yet that Remy had spent most of the night in Rogue's room… The resulting bloodshed would be ugly.

Logan took up an aggressive stance beside Rogue's bed that reeked of paternal protection. He noted darkly that Remy was holding a similar position on the other side of her… only Remy's position indicated a positively feral desire to tear out the throat of anyone who crossed him.

Logan glared at the kid.

Never in his life had he been out aggressive-stance'd.

Remy, seeming to sense the heat of Logan's glare, turned and locked eyes with the man with his own intense glare. The staring contest that ensued was epic-worthy.

"If you are both quite done…" Betsy spoke up meekly.

"Anytime you wanna explain what the hell just happened, darlin'." Logan growled, sparing a moment from glaring at Remy so that he could glare at Betsy, who had been trying to recollect herself after her short time in the mind of Rogue.

Betsy winced and nodded.

"Where… where do I start?" She wondered out loud.

"The beginning's always a good place." Warren comforted her with a hand on her bare shoulder. Remy glared at the hand with silent accusation and jealousy, feeling the cloth barrier between himself and Rogue grow more pronounced.

Betsy nodded again with a small smile at Warren and took a deep breath .

"The beginning." She repeated. "The beginning is Emma Frost _is a bitch._" She snarled. No one disagreed with her.

"What did she do?" Storm asked through grinding teeth.

"_She rearranged the mental blocks in Rogue's head." _Betsy growled.

"That's… bad?" Jubilee ventured.

"Does it look like it did her any good, luv?" Betsy turned on the smaller girl. Warren planted his other hand on her other shoulder and coaxed her back into a calm state by mumbling something into her ear. Betsy took a deep breath and continued. "She separated Rogue from the psyches that were beneficial to her, like friends almost, and tried to break down the block between her and all of the ones that hate her. They harass her to the point that they govern her every movement just because she wants them to shut up." Her bottom lip started trembling. "They're _awful._"

"Why would Emma want to do that?" Piotr asked, crossing his arms over his wide chest and scowling. This was the equivalent of breaking chairs over teeth for the collected Russian.

"Why does Emma do anything she does?" Betsy asked.

Everyone internally debated if stabbing a comatose woman was below them.

Logan and Remy decided it wasn't, one unsheathed his claws and the other drew out a deck of cards.

Ororo stood in between the, and Emma's body.

"When she wakes up, she's out." She assured, eyes clouding up slightly. "She has endangered my students and she is no longer welcome in these halls. I don't want bloodshed."

The two men contemplated this for a moment and accepted it as a good answer.

"That's not everything." Betsy muttered.

Remy clenched his jaw and concentrated on not charging his own gloves accidentally while he listened to more bad news.

"I repaired most of the damage done to the block against the…" She struggled with finding a word. "Angry…psyches. But it's not perfect. They're muffled, but not gone." She explained, taking a pause to look at the handprints in the wall before continuing. "I broke down the barrier between her and the psyches that she has come to depend on and… I think they were fighting so hard against the mental block… their mutations manifested externally. Logan, Magneto, Pyro, Pete, and Bobby."

"Like they did when she flipped out earlier this week and all the lights and the windows broke?" Jubilee ventured again, fearing Betsy's reaction.

Betsy nodded again, which she seemed to be doing a lot lately. "When they fight with the other psyches intensely, I believe they could manifest again… maybe even more violently then these two times. The psyches I've muffled only really seem to harass her when she gets emotionally strained. Thus, the only way to keep Rogue from not theoretically _blowing us all to hell _is to keep her calm and happy until we can find a better telepath than I to make the wall stronger. Agreed?"

"I like that plan." Jubilee interjected.

Everyone else nodded readily. Death by angry Rogue was not high on their list of 'Things to do today'.

And 'The truth' was finally and completely erased from Remy's list of 'Things to tell Rogue in my lifetime', because, undoubtedly if there was ever something that was going to make her upset, the goddamn truth was it.

"What about Emma?" Piotr spoke again, his other activities during the conversation had been clenching his jaw and clenching his fists.

"What _about _her?" Remy and Logan growled in unison, noticed this, and then entered another glaring battle.

"I do not think that Rogue could do so much damage as to send her into coma." Pete explained. "Perhaps there is third party involved?"

"Ooooor," Jubilee jumped in. "Maybe Rogue was pissed that Emma was screwing around with her head and strangled her purely out of self-defense. What do you think, Warren?"

"I vote divine-intervention." Warren said, a boyish grin slipped across his face as he pictured God's hand reaching down from the heavens and just straight up bitch-slapping Emma Frost.

Betsy, catching this mental image projected, punched him in the arm. "Stop being stupid." She snipped.

"Owww-ah!" Warren groaned as he rubbed furiously at the bruised flesh.

"I don't know what you did or thought, but stop it." Storm snorted.

In Warren made up more creative things that could have happened to Emma inside of his mind, including a dinosaur, a walkie-talkie, a giant washing machine, and some sort of large flightless bird. The only thing that saved him from more bruises from Betsy's fist was the distracting sound of faint groaning directly underneath the glowering war of Logan and Remy.

Rogue opened her eyes hazily to find the two most prominent figures attempting to light each other on fire with nothing but their glares.

"Uhm…" She breathed in confusion as she tried to sit up. As soon as she crunched up the muscles in her abdomen Logan's hand clamped down on her left shoulder and Remy's down on her right in almost perfect unison.

The glaring became more intense.

Apparently she wasn't allowed up until one of them won.

"Ah'm so confused." She rubbed her head and looked around the rest of the room. Her confusion was not helped as when her gaze landed on the others in the room their faces suddenly split into '_Holy-shit-don't-make-her-upset' _grins.

Except for Warren, who was momentarily out of the loop as he wondered if the walkie talkie and the giant washing machine could some how work together to beat Emma senseless.

"_Smile, dammit." _Betsy elbowed him in the ribs.

"What?" He looked around and saw Rogue looking at him. "Right!" His own smile was nearly blindingly bright.

"What's goin' on?" Rogue asked anxiously.

Everyone silently agreed that 'If we accidentally make you upset, everyone will die' would only make her upset.

"Nothing, _chica._" Jubilee's grin looked like it was about to break. "How are you feeling?" She asked before Rogue could ask more questions.

"Pretty nice." Rogue smiled and shifted a little under the hands still pinning her down. "It's quite inside my head and-."

"GODDAMMIT!" Logan blinked, losing the glaring war.

"'M just good, _homme." _Remy grinned a completely legitimate grin before plopping himself down on the table next to Rogue. "Mornin' sleepin' beauty." He smiled down at her.

"Morinin'." She smiled back. Her smile faded away after a moment. "How's your throat?" She asked nervously.

"Fine." He brushed off her concern.

"I'm sorry…" She continued before he cut her off.

"_Chere, _I guarantee y' that worse has happened t' me and worse is yet t' come." He soothed her and she smiled softly at him.

Logan found this an opportune time to interrupt.

"Are you hungry, kid?" He grabbed her attention. "I heard you hadn't eaten dinner and it's just about time for breakfast."

"Uh… Sure, I guess." She took another look at all of the people acting oddly in the room. "Can I … get up now?" She looked down pointedly at Logan's hand still on her shoulder.

He seemed to seriously consider his answer before removing his hand.

"Y'all are so weird." She mutter as she hoisted herself into a standing position.

Riptide, having listened to this entire exchange from his perch on the outside wall, took out a pen he had snatch and quickly scrawled out '_Neutralize before detaining' _next to '_Hot brunette w/ white streak' on the list on his arm._


	22. Chapter 22

Rogue sighed heavily from her spot flung over Logan's shoulder.

"Ya do realize how uncomfortable this is?" She asked him. "I can walk by myself."

"You fell," Logan grunted. "Walking rights revoked."

"I tripped!" She snarled. "That doesn't mean I'm too weak tah make it down tah tha cafeteria bah myself!"

"Yes it does." Logan shot back.

"No it doesn't!" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes it does." He repeated.

"Ah hate yah." She growled.

"No you don't."

"Ah'm considerin' hatin' yah."

"No you aren't."

She growled deep in her throat with frustration.

"Good one," Logan smiled proudly. "Next time, try and let the growl rattle around more in your chest, _that's _what makes it intimidating."

"I'll keep that in mind." Rogue harrumphed.

"Glad to hear it, kiddo." Logan grinned as they- he- finally walked into the cafeteria. There were few people in the room, mostly older kids who had early classes and wanted to grab quick breakfast. They all seemed shocked when Logan came stomping in with Rogue hefted over his shoulder.

But, actually, if any of these students had been around a year ago, they would know that this wasn't such an odd occurrence with the Rogue. The logic behind that being 'If you can't make her do something good for herself, do it for her and force her to come along.' Piotr had been quick to adopt this mantra when dealing with Rogue as well, and the only thing stopping Warren was the wings.

She was just happy that Hank had told Remy to stay behind so that he could check him over again so that he couldn't see her.

Logan plopped her down at one of the empty tables, growled at her when she tried to get up, and told her "Wait here while I get you some food or so help me…" He trailed off and let her fill in one of the many patented Logan Threats as he walked away towards the food line. (which had only recently been completely repaired from a brush with a certain Cajun.)

As soon as he disappeared around the corner into the noisy line, it was like a flip had been switched in the cafeteria and everyone was silently staring at her.

"Hey, Poison Touch." One of the girls sneered as she walked closer to the table Rogue was sitting at. Rogue tried to shrink away from her. "Heard you flipped your shit again."

"I heard that she nearly killed Emma." Someone in the back piped up.

"I'm surprised they haven't booted you out, you freak." The girl in the front spoke again as she continued to advance on Rogue.

"Ah- Ah didn't-." Rogue started to say.

"You- You didn't what?" A boy joined in the girl's taunting. "Mean to suck people dry?"

_He's right, Marie…._ A whisper shot up in the back of her head.

"Shut up!" She screamed, clamping her hands over her ears.

"Uh-oh," Someone laughed. "Looks like she's gonna lose it again." They started closing in on her.

It was at that point they all became acutely aware of the sound of shuffling cards.

"Now I know y'all ain't messin' wit' Remy's _chere._" Remy drawled coolly from where he leant against the wall. "Are y'?" He held up the Ace of Spades as it began to glow.

"Uh N-no sir…" The girl in the front quickly backed off. No one was going to fight him after seeing what he had done to Bobby. "We were just leaving…"

"Glad t' hear it." His red on black eyes bore holes into them as he moved across the room to sit next to Rogue. "Y' alright _chere?" _He mumbled into her ear.

She nodded as she tucked herself into the fabric of his shirt.

"Just make them go away." She mumbled.

With one well placed glare, the children scattered.

"Why d' y' let dem pick on y' like that?" He asked, rubbing her shoulders.

"If I say anything they get worse. They think I _want _to do these things." She muttered. "It doesn't matter. They leave me alone if I stand still."

_Another reason she ran away. _Remy's conscience sighed. He circle his arms tighter around her. _You aren't going to do this girl any good. _His conscience continued. _Cut your losses. Let her be here with her family. And the boy scout. Let her have the boy scout._

Remy sincerely considered this option.

Before he could say anything Betsy and Warren walked in, heatedly discussing something- probably Rogue. When they noticed Remy and Rogue staring at them they slathered on smiles that were so fake you couldn't sell them to a blind man.

"I feel like they're hiding something from me." Rogue kept watching them as they reentered their discussion while trying to maintain their smiles.

_They are. _His conscience spoke sadly. _Tell her! Tell her!_

"Maybe they're just concerned about you. Maybe lyin' is the only way t' keep y safe." He offered.

"Maybe they're starting to think I'm a freak." She shot back.

"No one could ever think y' were a freak." He assured her, nuzzling softly into her hair. She leaned into him.

"Would you lie to me? If you thought it was going to protect me, I mean." Rogue looked up at him.

His heart stopped dead in his chest.

_Yes._

"Remy?" Another voice called for him from the front of the hall. "I want to talk with you." Storm said. God bless that woman.

"I'll seeya later, _chere." _Remy kissed the back of Rogue's gloved hand.

Rogue watched him practically sprint away from her.

_I am sure he did not mean to avoid question. _Pete said gently.

_And you are not a freak, m'dear. _She could almost feel Erik putting a comforting hand underneath her chin. _You are a goddess among insects._

_And hot. Really, really hot. _John jumped at any opportunity to tell her that she was good looking.

_I don't trust him._

"I don't trust him."

Rogue turned around with a start to see Logan towering over her.

"Why not?" She asked despite herself.

Logan placed plate of food in front of her and grunted as he sat exactly where Remy had just been.

"He smells like half-truths." He rumbled and then said nothing more on the subject.

Rogue looked down at the food in front of her, then up to Logan who refused to speak anymore, and then over to Warren and Betsy who had slipped out of their smiles sometime during the intensity of their debate, but immediately slapped on another set of equally fake ones when they noticed her watching.

"Ah'm not hungry." She growled and pushed away the food, standing up on her own.

"What's wrong?" Logan caught up with her.

"Y'all are keeping' somethin' from me. Ah ain't stupid." She whipped around to face him. "Ah'm going tah mah room, and until someone wants tah take the damn time to explain tah meh what the hell is goin' on, I ain't coming out 'til the sun goes down!" She snarled.

Behind her, the metal of the doorframe contorted almost imperceptibly.

"Maybe that's a good idea…" Logan allowed, trying not to stare at the doorframe. "You take some time to calm down, kid. Rest up."

Rogue looked like she was about to say something more, but just snorted with fury and stomped away.

She didn't seem to notice that she left a trail of ice foot prints behind her.

* * *

"I changed my mind…" Ororo mumbled as she walked with Remy.

Remy sighed heavily. "I thought you might."

"You shouldn't tell her."

"I ain't gonna tell her."

"It will hurt her."

"And cause 'er t' go crazy and blow everyone up, I caught that of the conversation, thank you." The was a minute amount of sass in his tone.

"I called in a favor." Storm continued, ignoring the sass. "Another telepath. She said that she could come down here and take a look inside of Rogue's head before the end of the week, but she didn't sound hopeful. She said the only real way Rogue can gain control is if she stands up to the people in her head and fights them off."

Remy thought about this for a moment.

"They're scary."

"How so?" Storm asked.

"All of their emotions are so intense," Remy shook his head, remembering the crashing waves of emotion that radiated from her. From _them._ "They have power over her." He grimaced.

"Lucky you were here." Ororo grinned at him. "Jubilee told me how you calmed her down. Again."

"It wasn't a big deal-." He started to say.

"You did hear the part where Betsy said the words '_blow us all to hell', _right? Because, and it could just be me here, I feel like that's a very big deal." Storm smiled at him and pulled him into a half-hug. "You saved the day, Mr. Remy LeBeau."

Remy stiffened under her arm.

_Saved the day._

That was an odd turn of events for him.

_Maybe if you listened to _me _more… _His conscience piped up.

_Shut up… _He thought grimly.

"Let's just hope nothing too drastic happens to drive her over the edge before we can make some sort of breakthrough." Ororo continued, unaware of his internal battle as she started to steer them back towards the mansion.

* * *

Riptide paced back and forth in one of his many hiding places as the phone in his hand broadcasted hallow rings.

"_Riptide." _The chill of the voice made him shiver as he picked up his phone.

"I need a location update." Riptide said bluntly.

"_They've been assembled and are en route. One more day, as promised."_

"Who am I working with?" Riptide wanted that day to finalize his plans.

"_Vertigo, Harpoon, Blockbuster, and Arclight."_

"Hmm…" Riptide mused. "All we need is Sabertooth and this could be a regular 'Welcome Back to Hell' party."

"_The exact reason why I chose them." _The voice seemed at ease to explain it's own genius. _"There is more than one type of warfare. Physical- which shall be fronted by you in the actual assault. And Mental- making sure the first faces he sees are the same as the last one he saw before getting out."_

"Genius." Riptide congratulated somewhat sarcastically, in a hurry to plan the glorious bloodbath that he was itching to be a part of.

"_Riptide…" _The voice called him back to reality.

"Yes?"

"_If anything happens to Gambit or the girl, I'll take their worth out of your hide." _The arctic edge of the voice and pointed _click_ made Riptide shudder and realize he was holding a dead line.

_*Jamie starts to hum 'One Day More' (From Les Miserable, because it's oddly appropriate).*_

_I only picked the Marauders I think are cool. Why? 1- I'm lazy. 2-I don't like dealing with all that complicated 'Who the flip is Malice and what the hell is she doing in Lorna's body?' stuff. So I kept it simple, with all of the cool kids. Am I screwing with this logical train of events that everyone already has set up in their mind? Hell yes. Will it make sense? Hopefully._

_

* * *

Just bare with me dearies! A few more chapters (Like, two) and this story blow the _fudge muffins_ out of you minds!_

_AHAHAHA! I'm so excited!_

_Next Chapter- A sweet moment (To off set all of the crazy Ima 'bout to blow up!)_


	23. Chapter 23

_Everyone loves a good kitchen scene._

* * *

True to her word, Rogue did not reappear for the rest of the day.

Jubilee, Kitty, and Betsy all tried to coax her out of the room around lunch and dinner time, but a few harsh words and heavy object later, they decided it was best to just give her some time alone.

Under the cloak of darkness and silence that had fallen over the mansion, she crept out of her room, led by the grumbling of her stomach. After an entire day of idle brooding, she decided that just munching was not enough, she was going to physically make food for herself… which was a problem because her cooking skills were limited.

She was wearing a nightgown Jubilee had forced her into buying that she had protested loudly against, but secretly admired. It's just… so much skin was exposed…

The dark green fabric cut off at about mid thigh, about an inch of that was lace trimming. The same fabric that made up the straps and framed neckline that swooped low, but stopped short of anything obscene. It was pretty. Wearing it made her feel pretty. And, seeing as how it was a nightgown, to be worn at 'night', as specified in the description, when there was no one else around her, she even allowed herself to feel a little dangerous by not being completely covered. Night time was always her time of revolution. Pajama shorts, short sleeved shirts, and now night gowns.

She smiled to herself, her second smile of the day, as she caught a glimpse of her leggy reflection in one of the windows in her ascent down the staircase.

The cool air brushed against her skin and she thrived in it. She was never allowed to feel the chill of the air. Always covered. Always wary.

Seeing her own bare skin was an odd experience, even for her.

"Quit starin' at yourself, girl." She chastised once she realized she had stopped walking just to stare at her own bare hands. "Get some food and go back to bed."

She set her shoulders and started back out on her journey to the kitchen, firmly resolved not to even think about looking at her own skin again.

After all, it was only poison.

* * *

Remy stared at the ceiling, sprawled out on his bed, occasionally shifting around uncomfortably as the creaks and soreness finally started setting into all of his bruises and wounds with his lack of action.

He growled out some curses as he attempted to turn onto his side, causing his shoulder to send out shrill screams of pain.

With a very poetic "Screw this." Remy rolled out of bed, groaning in pain as he hit the floor, and decided some ice was probably in order.

He stood up after a few moments of struggling to get his muscles to cooperate with his will and looked around for the suitcase full of clothes he had Storm keep for him in case of 'emergencies'. (Heists gone bad, crazy katana wielding mercenaries after his hide, the regular katana wielding mercenaries… stuff like that.)

And at this particular moment he was faced with a new question- to put on a shirt or not to put to a shirt?

The action of actually putting a shirt on would require to much jostling of his shoulder to justify actually raising his arms above his head, but on the other hand, it was cold as anything outside of the comfort of pillows and mattress (which was actually not that comfortable, surprisingly.)

Remy decided in that instant that it was his obligation as a man to grit through the pain and put on a damn sweater.

It was cold.

Grunting out a colorful string of French curses, he pulled out a black and grey sweater out of the pile of clothes and over his head with gritted teeth, grinning with success.

With a flamboyant gesture to the chilly air, he swept out of the room and down the hall without making a sound, the familiarity of the night telling him to be cautious.

It was a helpful trait, silent foot falls and enhanced sensitivity to the air around him. Especially now, or he wouldn't have heard what he had when he had.

Humming.

A sweetly seductive sound that thrummed through the air and coiled around him, causing him to stand still, entranced for a moment by the crooning. Suddenly not in control of his own body, he stumbled along, following the melody, not caring where it took him, though it took him exactly where he wanted to go.

Right to Rogue.

He watched for a moment as she tapped her fingers on the counter in the kitchen with her back to him, so far unaware of his presence. The sweet tune still radiated from her throat and sealed lips.

For a moment he was taken with the sight of her, or really of her skin. The forbidden fruit. Poison.

Would it be sweet- like anti freeze? Bitter- like arsenic? Maybe no sensation at all- like cyanide?

She seemed to reach some executive decision on what her goal was here in the kitchen and stood on her toes to observe the items in the top of the pantry, her humming staying constant.

He smirked to himself and wasn't at all shocked to discover a deck of cards being shuffled in his hands. He plucked off the card on top, half suspecting what it was going to be.

The King of Hearts. With the blade pressed against his head, the card struck Remy as slightly humorous when he was pining for nothing but poison.

Rogue hummed one of the haunting lullabies her mother had sung to her when she was a child. It was a nameless, wordless tune that always had made her skin crawl with pleasurable . It filled up the darkness and the loneliness in much the same way the voices inside of her head did.

She caught sight of the flour she was looking for and stood on her toes to try and reach it. No good. I was on the top shelf.

"Just a little higher…" She mumbled to herself, breaking off her humming to try and promote herself.

Promotion or no promotion, she wasn't getting any taller.

Waving her hand around, her fingers grazed the side of the bag, pushing it farther back on the shelf.

Damn, damn, damn! Who the hell put the flour on the top shelf?

"Need a hand," A cool purr sounded from directly behind her and her muscles seized up. She became hyper aware of every inch of tantalizing skin that was exposed on her body that could kill the man behind her if he got too close. "_Chere?"_

Not waiting for an answer, Remy placed himself so that he was _almost _touching her, placing his hand on the frame of the pantry and reaching above her to grab the bag she had been fighting to obtain, she was very nearly trapped.

Rogue didn't dare move as he pressed himself close to her when he reached over her head to grab the bag she had been aiming for. Unnecessarily close, one might add.

"You know it's bad luck to get this close to me, sugar." She mumbled, knowing he was close enough to hear her whisper because of the warmth of his breath that was a sharp contrast from the cool night air that graced the rest of her skin.

"Know? Yes." She could feel him smile and his hands slid around her waist. "Care? No."

She laughed and leaned back into him when she saw the sleeves of what was very obviously a thick sweater.

"I said it once and I'll say it again- you're ten kinds of stupid, swamp rat." She chuckled and shoved him away.

"Well, I'd consider being eleven for you." He winked at her.

She rolled her eyes and pulled some eggs out of the fridge.

"What are ya makin'?" He inquired, pulling himself up to sit on the counter right next to where she was cultivating ingredients.

"I can make two things- cereal and cookies." Rogue said simply as she reached up into the pantry again and pulled out some chocolate chips.

"So- you haven't eaten anything all day and now you're just going to make cookies?" He peered over her shoulder as she pulled out a cookbook.

"Yes."

He gave out a longsuffering sigh, hopping down from the counter, and started rooting through cabinets.

"What are you doing, swamp rat?" Rogue put her hands on her hips as he emerged from the cabinet holding a pot.

"I ain't gonna let you eat nothin' but unhealthy cookies." He gave her a mockingly stern look.

Now it was Rogue's turn to sigh as he started humming the same tune she had just finished while going through the contents of the fridge.

"And what is it you plan to do about it?" She raised an eyebrow as he pulled out some chicken, sausage, and celery.

"I plan t' make jambalaya." He said matter-of-factly.

"You cook?" Rogue really couldn't help but be stunned.

"And I'm house-broken." Remy laughed.

She crinkled up her nose and turned back to her cookie ingredients, completely determined to finish her cookies before he was done with his jambalaya. She picked up the bag of flour and braced it against her chest as she read over the list of proportions she would need to successfully render cookies.

"Remy, could you hand me the cup measur-" Rogue started to ask as she turned around.

That happened to be the very same moment Remy had turned around to retrieve green peppers from where he had placed them on the counter. His chest crashed into her arms, sending an explosion of flour up into his face.

Rogue gasped, hand flying up to her mouth to choke back her laughter at the now snowy white appearance of the man in front of her.

Remy opened his eyes to glare at her.

"Right." He growled and reached out to pluck an egg out of the carton.

The outer shell of the egg started to glow pink.

"Oh, no." Rogue put and hand on her hip. "Remy LeBeau, you will put down that egg right-."

The egg exploded.

Rogue's face was a frozen mask of shock and egg yolk, and Remy did absolutely nothing to curb his laughter.

"You jerk!" She wiped egg whites off of her night dress and quickly turned around to grab a fist full of dark brown sugar, which she promptly chucked at him.

Remy ducked underneath the flying clump of sugar, which hit the wall with a soft thud behind him, and reacted instantly by grabbing the vanilla and uncapping it over Rogue's head.

"Ah!" Rogue screeched as the vanilla poured down her hair. She smacked the bottled out of his hand and hurled the vegetable oil he had gotten out at him.

Remy attempted to duck the open bottle as well, but it had been aimed dead center of his chest and poured down his front.

At this point, the chicken was burning and the recipe book was ruined.

The two southerners looked around wildly for something else to throw, not to be outdone, but all that was left was raw poultry, burnt poultry, celery, frozen butter, and chocolate chips.

Rogue went for the celery while Remy grabbed the chocolate chips.

"Surrender!" Rogue demanded, brandishing the celery stalks like a sword.

"Never!" Remy cried, charging the chocolate in his hands.

They locked eyes, glare on glare.

Rogue's hair was slicked back with vanilla and egg yolk that had leaked down her face and arms and all over her night gown. Remy's hair was white with flour and his shirt was sticky mess of vegetable oil and flour that had made a plaster-like substance that would probably never come out of the material.

"Please?" Rogue tried after a moment or two of silence.

They both burst out into laughter to the point where they had to brace themselves up against each other to keep from falling down to the floor that was covered with the various items that had been hurled over the last few moments.

When the laughter died down, all that was left was one Remy LeBeau with a Rogue in his arms.

"Well… uh…" Rogue shifted awkwardly around, not trying to make it obvious that she was uncomfortable being completely covered in food, almost scandalously exposed by her standards, and in the arms of an extremely good looking man who had made it abundantly obvious that he didn't give a damn about her poison skin.

She didn't want to hurt him.

Remy's lips curled into a wolfish grin.

Rogue felt her face get hot.

"What _the hell _is going on here?" Someone growled from the doorway.

Remy looked over his shoulder coolly, not releasing a wriggling Rogue from his grip just yet, to see the Wolverine standing in the doorway.

"'S nothing'." Remy grinned.

"Because I really believe that, Gumbo." Logan rolled his eyes and cut the heat to the burnt chicken because the smell was starting to make his head hurt. All he could really do was look over the mess that had probably once been a kitchen and sigh. A heavy, deep sigh of a man who knew he was fighting the losing battle of keeping his 'kid' away from a jackass.

"If there's no problem here, I was kinda busy." Remy smirked, simultaneously winding Logan up and making Rogue blush a more furious shade of red.

Logan barely restrained a growl. "Kid," he looked to Rogue. "Detangle yourself from the Cajun and go take a shower."

"Oh, can Remy help wit' the showering, _chere_?" Remy turned back to Rogue.

Logan flexed his fingers and contemplated, if only for a moment, where he was going to hide the body, but quickly decided he had a better punishment.

"Actually Gumbo," Logan smiled. "You get to clean the kitchen."

The pad of dark brown sugar that had been stuck to the wall flopped to the ground amidst the destruction of the kitchen.

* * *

'_One day more 'til revolution- We shall nip it in the bud.- I shall fight with these little schoolboys,- They will wet themselves with blood!' -Javert._

_BAHAHA! Hope you liked the cutesy, because it's the last you'll see of it until the very end. AND NOW for the gore, the heartbreak, and the fudge muffins!_


	24. Chapter 24

_I'm sorry it took me so long to throw this up but this week was dedicated to not being a failure- guess who brought their D+ in English up to a B? This chick. Alll-right. I got my laptop back! Yay for Tamara!_

_And lemme tell you chickies something- this story will have a happy ending… It's just going to have to get worse before it gets better._

_Much worse._

_And now, for a short (like, extra super-duper short) moment with Riptide._

* * *

Riptide paced back and forth warily like a hunter on the prowl in front of the four other figures. They stood at a professional attention, but the nearly disfiguring scars and malicious smiles proclaimed them to be anything but your average professionals.

Vertigo stood at the extreme right, her green hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and her tactical suit clung to her feminine curves appealingly, but adding a dangerous vibe to her. The smoke from her cigarette wafted around her head and up into the cold air where it could no longer be distinguished from the ice crystals that clung to the water vapor of their breaths. Her dark green eyes flashed with a want for action that completely off set the relaxed look of her body.

Blockbuster stood next to her. Everything about the man was intimidating. The muscles that bulged from his skin looked as though they could nearly take down grown men individually. His head was shaved bald, adding a professional killer effect to the ensemble that was enhanced by his sharp gaze.

Arclight stood on his other side, slightly shorter but just as intimidating. Her dark hair was slicked back and her shoulders were set in the format that would have fit in easily with the army. Her muscles were individually toned and defined in the chiseled atomically structured way they had been designed. Her eyes were hard and unemotional. Her smiled was just as cold.

Harpoon wheeled his weapons of choice around in his fingers, cocking his head to the side and grinning at the prospect of blood. His light brown hair fell into his eyes, adding extra shadow to his cutting glance that the light continually given off by the harpoons in his hands had already constructed. He had useful muscle, not as overdone as the two to his side, but still grotesquely built.

Riptide stood, shortest and leanest out of all of them, at the front of the group, daring them to challenge him with the dark pits of insanity in his eyes.

All were able.

None were willing.

"Is this objective understood?" Riptide's teeth clicked in the air after he had just spent most of the day explaining his plan several times over to make sure the execution would be flawless.

"Extricate Gambit and the girl without causing either of them harm." Came the uniformed answer.

"Good." He awarded sharply, glancing up at the sky where the sun had already peaked as was starting to sink back down to the ground. How time flies when you're planning massacre. "You have three hours to make yourselves decent enough to kill, ladies and gentlemen. I want no mistakes. Understood?"

Vertigo's lips curved around her cigarette, Blockbuster's grin stretched to show his teeth, Arclight's face stayed a composed mask but her eyes sparked slightly with the news of approaching action, Harpoon sheathed his weapons with a self-satisfied smile.

They all nodded.

Anyone looking on would have understood immediately that these weren't men.

They were animals.

_

* * *

See y'all tomorrow!_


	25. Chapter 25

Rogue huffed with annoyance, sitting down in the middle of her room surrounded by clothes.

_I'm still voting for the slinky black dress. _John piped up.

"You're just sayin' that because it's tighter than a second skin." Rogue snorted.

_Well do you _want _to look hot for the dude that kicked Bobby's ass at dinner? _John asked skeptically.

Rogue blushed. "Maybe…"

_Then put on the damn black dress, woman! _He shouted in her ear with laughter in his tone.

"You're lucky I can't get my hands on you," Rogue commented as she sifted through the clothes again. "Or I'd strangle you."

Currently she was wearing one of Logan's Canada sweat shirts that she had stolen that nearly brushed her knees it was so large and a pair of tight black leggings that were also partially covered by a pair of black combat boots. And gloves. As always.

_No you wouldn't! _John protested. _You _love _me-._

_Crack._

"Shut up." She snapped, turning her head when she heard a faint noise from the hall. "What was that?"

She honed her senses on the hallway outside of her door for the next few moments.

"I guess it was nothing…" She started to shrug.

_Crack._

She sighed heavily and pulled herself out of the clothing mountain and stalked out of the door into the hall.

"Jamie, what did I tell you about stealing Pete's camera?" She shouted, looking around wildly for the young child she suspected to be at the bottom of this. But the hallway was dark. Unnaturally so.

"Sorry to disappoint." A cold voice crawled its way to her ears and she shivered.

Rogue gasped and stumbled back in fear, turning around to face her antagonist. .

Riptide cocked his head to the side and put his hand on the last working light in the hall. It died out of existence with another fizzling sound as the glass crushed between his fingers with a sharp _crack_.

The hall was drenched in blackness.

-

"Can't catch me!" Jamie laughed as he raced down the hall.

"You're cheating!" Rahne shouted after him.

"Am not!" Jamie protested.

"Are too!" Rahne shot back.

"Betcha can't prove it!" He cackled as he tore around a corner.

Jamie skidded to a stop.

Rahne turned the corner and nearly collided with him.

"What's wrong?" A concerned tone took into her voice as she looked him over.

She followed his frozen gaze to a hulking figure at the other end of the hall with a shaved bald head and terrifying eyes.

"Hello kiddies." Blockbuster smirked.

His mammoth hands reached out for them.

-

Jubilee hummed to herself as she dragged Warren down one of the halls.

"Jubilee!" He moaned in complaint. "I don't like Betsy! Lemme go!"

"You, sir, are a liar and a cheat." Jubilee declared. "You like her! Admit it right now ad I'll let you go!"

"No!" He shouted vehemently.

"We're getting closer to Betsy's room." Jubilee sang out as she continued to drag him.

"Get this crazy woman off of me!" Warren shouted, doing his best to claw his way out of her grip. "Somebody get me outta here!"

"Well," A unfamiliar female voice called to them. They both looked up to see an Amazonian woman with dark hair and crazy muscles leaning coolly against a wall. "If you insist."

She peeled away from the wall.

-

"No, I haven't seen your pastel set, Peter, I'm sorry." Ororo walked out of the elevator, dwarfed by Piotr standing next to her.

"I do not know where they could have gone to." Piotr scratched his head.

A cloaked figure leaning next to an open window caught Ororo's attention because of the smoke billowing from the cigarette in their hands.

"Hey!" She shouted. "You can't smoke in here! You know better than that." She stomped up to the woman and snatched the cigarette out of her lips before stomping it out on the ground, Piotr close at her heels.

"Maybe I don't." The woman stared down at her crushed cigarette, thoroughly vexed.

"I do not recall having ever seen you around here before." Piotr turned his head to the side to try and get a better look at the woman, but only catching sight of her green hair and eyes.

"Oh," Vertigo shrugged off her jacket. "I don't go here." She smile broadly and set up her fighting stance. "I'm just here to pick a few things up."

-

"Look, Gumbo," Logan growled at Remy. "This doesn't count as clean!" He pointed to the kitchen, which practically sparkled.

"What d' y' want me t' do?" Remy shouted. "I've been cleaning up dis shit all day!"

"And it won't be good enough until I can't smell the burnt chicken anymore." Logan said simply.

Remy snorted with fury and contemplated blowing up the kitchen and then blowing up Wolverine.

Logan guessed his train of thought.

"You wanna start something, Gumbo?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"If he doesn't," Remy and Logan whipped around at the sound of a new voice. "I certainly do." Harpoon stepped out of the shadows that had concealed him and spun his two favorite weapons around in his fingers.*

Remy's breath caught up in his throat and the scar on his chest seemed to give off a dull throb. He was momentarily speechless.

Logan, on the other hand…

_Snikt. _

"Who are you, bub?" Wolverine snarled, curling his fingers into fists underneath the adamantium blades extending beyond his knuckles. "What are you doing here?"

"Ask him," Harpoon jabbed his chin out at Remy. "He knows the answer to both questions."

Realization dawned on Remy like an icy stab in the heart.

"I'm not going back!" He shouted, grabbing a knife off of the cutting board beside him, charging it, and hurling at Harpoon with a deadly accuracy.

Harpoon ducked under the blade and then rolled out of the way as it exploded.

"You don't really have a choice in the matter, Gambit." His eyes narrowed.

-

Riptide caught the brunt of Rogue's fist directly in his stomach, which had probably been just a lucky shot considering it was pitch black."You're dead!" She accused to the darkness.

"Ah-ah-ah, little girl," Riptide tutted, seemingly unfazed by the hit he had just received. "You wouldn't want to make me hurt you, now would you?"

She slammed her other fist into his jaw before twisting around and hitting his side with a rib-cracking kick.

"Last warning, little girl." Riptide sang. "Don't make me break my word to deliver you in one piece."

Rogue screamed out in fury as she struck out again, fist connecting with the hard wood of the wall in the darkness.

"Come out and fight me you coward!" She shrilled into the depths of darkness in front of her as she yanked off her gloves roughly.

"Can't we solve this peacefully?" He wondered out loud from behind her.

Rogue whipped around and kicked out, connecting right in the place where no man wants to be kicked.

"Alright," He grunted. "I'm done being nice."

She thrust out her fist at him again blindly, and he caught her wrist deftly before kicking her feet out from underneath of her and slamming her down into the ground.

Rogue grunted in pain before kicking him off of her and rolling across broken glass to get out of his way as he lashed out and shattered one of the side tables that decorated every hall in the Institute. Cuts opened up on her skin as the glass cut through her thin layers and jabbed at her vulnerable flesh, leaving streaks of bloody pain in their wake.

She cried out in equal parts shock and pain and he was on her once again, kicking her repeatedly in the side so that the sounds of her ribs crunching was audible above her shouts, causing blinding amounts of searing, shooting, throbbing pain.

Gritting her teeth and clenching her fists Rogue caught his ankle with one of her hands in a moment of pure luck and twisted it until he was thrown back down to the floor. Her fingers coiled around a shard of glass left abandoned on the ground, opening gashes on her hands as well as she reached up over her head and brought the edge of it down on his leg.

"Bitch!" He howled in pain.

"Shit, shit, shit…" Rogue muttered, crawling towards the closest source of light at the other end of the hall, attempting to stand up twice before falling back to the ground as her compromised body couldn't support her.

Tears spilled over her eyes as she continued to drag herself, hoping that Riptide hadn't already rebounded from her blow.

"Help!" She shouted. "Somebody help-." She started coughing up blood as pain stabbed throughout her sides. "Help…" She rasped.

A hand wrapped around her throat. Rogue's eyes went doe.

"I am helping." Riptide assured her with a maniac grin just before slamming her head into the wall, sending her into a more effective darkness.

-

Rahne and Jamie both screamed and tried to scramble away as Blockbuster reached out from them.

"Can't let you do that." Blockbuster boomed, reaching over their heads and shutting the door, sealing off their escape.

"You big butthead!" Rahne shouted after running into the door and hitting her nose.

"Sorry, kid," Blockbuster sympathized with the small child. "But you and your boyfriend have to come with me."

Rahne turned red.

"He's not my boyfriend!" She snarled, morphing into a wolf and aiming for his throat.

Blockbuster batted her away like a fly and she hit the wall hard.

"Don't touch her!" Jamie shouted, slapping himself so that three more Jamies sprung to life around him. He charged at Blockbuster, only producing more and more Jamies as his hits and strikes bounced off of the mammoth man.

Blockbuster sighed dramatically before reaching down and knocking them all unconscious in one sweep of his giant hand.

All of the Jamies but one faded from existence on the ground next to Rahne.

-

Arclight simply reached out and plucked Warren from Jubilee's grip and held on tight even as he struggled against her.

"W-who are you?" Jubilee stuttered, taking a shocked step backwards.

"Doesn't matter." Arclight shrugged. "All you need to know is that I'll be the last thing you see in this world before I kill you."

"Try it!" Jubilee shouted, suddenly furious. She clenched her fists as she momentarily built up as much power as she could control before letting loose an explosion of fireworks from her finger tips that sent Arclight stumbling backwards, blinded.

Warren took the opportunity to strech out his wings, hitting the woman that held him captive in the chest and legs, sending her to the ground as he moved away from her grip.

"Go get Mr. Logan-." Jubilee started to instruct, building up more power in her hands.

"Cute tricks." Arclight interrupted, dragging herself back into a standing position. "Let me show you mine." She smiled wickedly as she brought her hands apart and then clapped them together, releasing waves of seismic energy that caused shock waves that possessed enough force to send Warren and Jubilee colliding with walls.

"Ow…" Jubilee moaned, clutching her head where she had struck the wood hardest.

Warren quickly recovered and tried to stand on his shaky legs.

"Still trying to fight me?" Arclight rolled her eyes and brought her hands together again with so much force they both screamed out in pain just having been exposed to it before finally surrendering to the vastness of unconsciousness.

-

"I do not understand." Piotr fell back into his own aggressive stance in response to Vertigo's.

"I guess looks aren't everything." She winked at him, striking out viciously, catching his chin with one of her heeled boots.

"Stop this immediately!" Storm shouted, eyes snowing over as weather stirred outside.

"I'm going to go with 'no'." Vertigo giggled before crouching down suddenly and kicking Storm's feet out from underneath her.

"That was not request." Colossus stood up, metallic skin reflecting the lights in an intimidating fashion.

"This is so boring!" Vertigo pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "I wanted to see blood, but _noooo. _Apparently I'm on a schedule, so forgive me if I don't drag this out." She sighed heavily and extended her arms in their direction.

Storm tried to drag herself up into an upright position, but the ground pitched underneath her. Piotr stumbled backward as the floor tilted and logic lost it's meaning. They both crumpled to the ground with spinning heads and disarming nausea.

"W-what are you doing?" Storm asked between gritted teeth, squeezing her eyes shut so that she would have to look at the world spinning.

"Did you know that there's a fluid in your inner ear that accounts for balance?" Vertigo wondered out loud. "It's true! Mess with one, itty bitty little piece of the body and even the biggest, strongest of men will come down to their knees." She patted Piotr on the head as he clenched his jaw and tried not to vomit. "But again folks, I'm on a schedule, so I don't really have time to explain everything. It's been fun!"

She aimed a solid kick right across both of their temples.

-

Logan, needing no more provocation than a few threatening words, hurled himself at the intruder claws first with a feral yell.

Harpoon smiled, bringing up his weapon to block Logan's advance. The harpoon turned a static blue under his fingers and Logan felt as though a jolt of lightning had gone through him. Harpoon's smile widened and he upped the charge.

The Ace of Spades exploded against his temple.

"Your problem's wit' me." Gambit growled deep in his throat, eye's shadowed. "Leave dem out 'a it."

"Can't." Harpoon grinned, pinning Wolverine against a wall and stabbing him into place there with an uncharged harpoon. Logan grunted with pain, but got over it quickly and set about trying the yank the weapon out of his chest to no avail.

"What d' y' mean 'can't'?" Gambit demanded, the next card clutched between his fingers started to spastically emit the pink light that was always followed by destruction.

"It's too late for them not to be involved."

Vertigo stepped out of the shadows and threw the bodies of Piotr Rasputin and Ororo Munroe that she had been dragging to the ground. Blockbuster stepped up and wordlessly tossed the prone forms of Rahne Sinclair and Jamie Maddox next to them. Arclight dragged in Jubilation Lee and Warren Worthington the Third.

"Bastard!" Wolverine tried to pry himself off of the wall more ferociously.

He went ignored as all of the Marauders stood back and smiled at a stunned Remy LeBeau whose heart was starting to shatter.

"Is this what you want?" Harpoon wondered out loud. "Do you want us to hurt them to get to you?"

Remy's eyes wandered over their bodies and he felt trapped like a rat in a cage.

"Do you need more innocent people to die, Gambit?" Arclight asked.

"Are you that selfish?" Blockbuster sneered.

"You remember what happened last time we had to kill innocent people. I'm sure you still have a lovely scar." Vertigo leaned against the wall and lit up another cigarette.

"I ain't gonna let y' hurt dem!" Remy snarled, setting his resolve and charging the entire deck. "Let dem go!"

"I can't do that, Gambit." Harpoon said.

"You have four seconds befo' bodies start hittin' de floor!" The cards started to frazzle with so much energy being ignited within them.

"They won't all be ours." Harpoon warned.

"And maybe one 'a dem will be mine." Remy snorted, fully prepared to go down if it meant he could remove one of _them _from the world as well.

"And what about her?" A new voice asked.

Remy turned sharply.

"You'd risk everyone else…" Riptide lazily held a knife against Rogue's throat. Her eyes were closed and her clothes were bloody. Her skin was littered with cuts and bruises. Her beautifully unique hair was tainted with blood. "But what about the girl, Gambit?"

Remy faltered.

"I'll give you the choice right now." Riptide stated. "Everyone else is let go- All of the children we've locked in their rooms. All of the roughed up ones you've grown fond of. The one stabbed through the chest pinned to the wall. So, now it's down to this choice- you," Riptide locked eyes with him. "Or her." He brought the knife up closer against her pale skin.

There was no hesitation.

"Me."

Remy cut the charge on the cards and let them fall to the ground before peeling off his trench coat and casting that to the ground as well. He removed his bo staff from his pocket and tossed down another two packs of cards he had on his person, never removing his eyes from Rogue.

Just to keep her safe, he'd go back.

Blockbuster and Arclight wrapped their hands around his arms, immobilizing him.

"You see," Riptide threw the knife into the wall. "This didn't have to be so hard. Hell, if the boss hadn't said he didn't want a hair on your head touched, I wouldn't have even bothered with this whole 'blackmail into submission' plan. But that would have probably included a lot more blood." Riptide wiped imaginary sweat from his brow as he tossed Rogue over his shoulder.

"Let her go." Remy demanded, keeping the danger in his voice despite the fact he was no longer a threat.

"Oh…" Riptide seemed to look confused for a second. "I didn't tell you, did I?"

"Tell me what?" He growled, the red of his eyes burned.

"You only bargained for her life." Riptide patted him on the head. "Not her freedom. The boss has decided to start a new little project with this one."

Remy started thrashing against Arclight and Blockbuster, charging anything and everything he could get his hands on. "If he touches her I'll kill him!" He swore through the curses.

"Don't worry, Gambit." Riptide motioned for Blockbuster to subdue him. "You'll see the man soon enough," Remy was clubbed over the head by a giant fist. "And he's just been _dying _to see you again."

Remy's world went dark.

-

_* I was _thiiiis _close to ending the chapter right there. _

_Woof, I'm tired. No, I didn't kill anyone :C I love killing people. And I love you guys! Fudge muffins for everyone for putting up with me! _

_Next chapter- Time for something Sinister. (Heh. You see… You see what I did there? Hee.) _


	26. Chapter 26

Remy struggled against them again, charging up his own gloves and stripping them off so that they blew up right behind him, only Arclight's quick thinking keeping her, Blockbuster and Remy from being incinerated.

"Dammit, Blockbuster!" She shouted, grunting with the effort of keeping Remy's arms pinned. "Why didn't you hit him harder?"

"How was I supposed to know he'd wake up in a few hours?" Blockbuster moaned, sincerely thankful he could absorb the blows he was receiving.

"Would you two get it together?" Vertigo snapped, offering no help as she inhaled tobacco smoke.

"Ah!" Blockbuster squeaked as his uniform started to glow a violent pink.

"_Permettez-moi d'aller se battre moi comme un homme que vous bâtards!" _Remy shouted, keeping his hand firmly planted on Blockbuster's arm behind his back.

"I don't know what he's saying!" Blockbuster started to strip off his shirt in a panic.

"_Je vais te tuer, faites glisser vous hors de l'enfer, tuer vous à nouveau, et cracher sur vos tombes!" _Remy swore vehemently, not really paying attention to what he was shouting, just knowing that they were threats.

"Someone calm him down!" Harpoon shouted.

"_J'ai une question particulière à régler avec vous," _Remy turned his burning gaze to Harpoon. _"tu m'as tué une fois. Je n'ai pas oublié." _He growled out.

"Somebody shut up his crazy-ass French babbling!" Vertigo snapped, pressing her fingers to her temples.

"Where's the girl?" Arclight choked out as she was repeatedly kicked in the stomach, working hard to keep a firm grip on his wrists. "He backed down when there was a knife at her throat!"

At the mention of Rogue, Remy tensed his muscles and growled deeply in his throat, but stilled his thrashing movements, breathing heavily.

"Hmm." Vertigo hopped down from the stack of boxes she was sitting on as the train they had stolen away on shook with the tremors of movement. "He really is quite smitten with her." She grinned coldly as she trailed her fingers down the side of Remy's cheek, tracing his jaw line. "I admit that she's cute, but I never really took you for one to go for the untouchable type."

Remy, being completely restrained and fully pissed off resorted to snarling and gnashing his teeth at her.

Vertigo quickly withdrew her fingers in shock.

"Animal," She spat, and removed herself from being close to him. "You're lucky we have very, _very _direct orders not to kill you."

"Just tell me where the other bastard you brought with you is wit' _ma chere _and I'll be outta y'r hair." Remy exhaled a sharp breath through his nose.

"Riptide?" Vertigo mused, placing another cigarette on her lips to feed her addiction. "Him and you _'chere' _decided to take up residence in a different boxcar." She turned around and added under her breath "_Away from you." _

"If he touches a hair on her head-." Remy started to grind out more threats.

"Oh, calm down." Vertigo huffed. "He's not going to be touching _any _part of the girl. She's poison."

Remy accidentally charged his own shirt as his rage spiked, completely uncaring of the burning against his skin.

"Tut tut, Cajun." Harpoon grinned at him. "You can't save the girl and live happily ever after if you blow yourself up." He laughed sharply. "But then again, guys like us don't get happy endings, do we, Gambit?"

"I'm nothing like you!" Remy spat, internally wincing with declaring something so vehemently when he wasn't even entirely convinced.

"Sure you aren't." Harpoon smiled. "Sure."

Remy growled deep in his throat at him, but couldn't come up with anything else to say to him, so just hung his head in a slightly shameful silence.

"When am I gonna see 'im again?" He mumbled in a barely audible whisper, not wanting to hear the answer.

"In about an hour." Harpoon supplied. "We'll have to tie you up like a birthday present to make sure you don't do anything tricky, as you've been known to do in the past, but you'll be seeing the boss face-to-face."

"You know." Remy looked up and grinned. "They don't call me the greatest thief in de worl' 'cause I can be kept tied up." He informed them, grinding his teeth against each other. "And when I get out, and trust me, it'll be sooner rather than later, I'll send your murdering asses straight to hell so fast the devil will get whiplash." He growled out, lunging against the arms restraining him again.

"I'm bored with this," Harpoon sighed. "Vertigo, what time is it?"

Vertigo pretended to glance at her non-existent watch. "Hot damn, it's about half past Gambit-should-shut-the-hell-up."

"My favorite time of the day!" Harpoon laughed, cocking back his leg and letting loose a vicious kick aimed at Remy's temple.

-

_Lovely, lovely fire. _

_Pretty red, orange, and blue._

_My beautiful fire. _

She looked up at her parent with a big smile on her face, proud of the high marks she'd pulled off on her assignment. She knew how they didn't like it when she didn't do well on assignments, but now she was trying harder. She had done well.

"What is this?" He r mother sneered down at her because, even for a ten year old, she was very small and malnourished.

"It's my haiku." She smiled broadly. "Look, I got 100% on it." She pointed out, only to be ignored.

"You wrote a haiku?" Her mother's lip curled with disgust. "Where do _haikus _get you in the world? Do _haikus _put bread on the table? Do _haikus _sober up your father?" She demanded.

"N-no." She began to fear she had done something wrong. The bruises that ran the length of her arms started to throb with the memory of beatings past.

"Damn straight 'no'!" Her mother screamed. "You don't do anything for this house!" She struck out, slapping her hard across the face. "I don't care what your bitch of a teacher says! You aren't anything! You'll grow up to be just like your father!"

"Momma," She moaned, holding her own cold fingers against her burning cheek. "Daddy doesn't mean to-."

"Bullshit!" Her mother shouted, tearing up the paper she held in her hands. "He knows exactly what he does to me!" She used a candle set out on the counter to her right to tight the piece of papers on fire. "It's exactly what you'll do to me, too." Her mother held up the burning papers, the child's writing was still visible through the flames. "Give me your hand, John."

She hesitated.

"I said _give me your fucking hand!." _Her mother shouted and she immediately stuck out her hand, wishing the world would just disappear, to just burn away. "Glad you could do _something _without fucking it up." Her mother spat, getting a firm grip on her wrist.

"Momma, don't!" She started to cry as the flaming pieces of paper were lowered closer to her flesh.

"Take it like a man, John." Her mother spat.

"Stop!" She whimpered, tugging at her wrist. "Please, stop!"

"Make me." Her mother snarled, pressing the fire against her skin.

Something broke inside of her. A new emotion that she had only experienced before in small doses. It now consumed her.

"_I SAID STOP_!" She screamed, the fire flared around her as if to express her fury.

Her mother stumbled to the ground, eyes wide with fear as she watched the fire contort in the air.

"What are you doing, you little freak?" The woman shrieked.

She breathed in heavy, ragged gasps, fueled by her hateful tears. The fire expanded and contracted with each shaky gasp.

"I'm burning the world." She growled, the fire flared up around her, consuming the house.

Rogue gasped for air, flying into an upright sitting position on the cold hard ground.

"Musta been a scary dream." Riptide commented, leaning against the wall opposite from her.

"Who the hell are you?" She spat. "Where am I? Why am I tied up? Answer me, dammit!"

"You don't remember?" He turned to look at her.

Her eyes were brown. Borderline red.

_Odd. _Riptide cocked his head to the side, almost positive they hadn't been like that when he had bashed her head in. He shrugged and turned back around.

_Calm down, Rogue. _John murmured in her mind. _It was just a scary dream. _

Rogue blinked. Her chest throbbed painfully as the collapsed ribs were stress as she sucked in a deep panicked breath, returning to her right mind.

_Ohmahgawd! _She thought wildly, tears building in her eyes as she tugged at her wrists and found them bound behind her back as well as her ankles.

_Calm down, _Erik said soothingly. _Take stock of your situation before you decide on action. _

Rogue closed her eyes and took a more tempered breath, still wincing as it contorted her broken ribs uncomfortably, and opened them again.

Before she could inspect her environment, or attempt to wriggle her way out of her bounds, or find some other means of escape, a question burst out of her mouth faster than her survival instincts could kick into effect. She felt it was much more important than her own survival, anyway.

"What did you do with Remy?" She snarled.

Riptide casually turned back to her. "What makes you think Gambit has anything to do with this? Maybe I've just decided I'm going to kidnap you and add you to be one of the members of my crazy serial killing spree across the country."

_He's lying. _Logan growled.

"You're lying." Rogue repeated, glaring at the man. "You don't know me. If you wanted to kill me, you would have killed me. The only reason to keep someone alive is if you're using them. And the only person I know you know that you'd be able to use me against is Remy. So, I'm gonna ask you one more time sweet-like before I start gettin' pissed- _Where is Remy?" _

Riptide smirked at the girl. _Not as dumb as she looks. _He awarded her. _Wait… weren't her eyes brown a second ago?_

"You see somethin'?" Rogue snapped, catching the man's confused look.

"Yeah," Riptide snorted, pulling himself together. "A little girl who fell in love with the wrong kind of man."

"What?" Rogue breathed, blushing furiously. "Ah am n-not-."

Riptide rolled his eyes and waved away her stutterings. "Yeah, yeah, _sure. _Say what you will, missy, but _I _know and _he _knows, and you better start coming to terms with this shit before we have to kill both of you."

Rogue was too stunned to say anything to that. That was silly. She'd know the man for a week. It was impossible to fall in love in a week…

Besides, he was silly, arrogant, perverted…

_Denial! _John coughed inside of her head.

…Sweet, charming, good natured…

_Oh dear lord… _Logan sighed heavily.

…Stubborn, egotistical, 'won't-go-to-the-damn-hospital' bastard! No, she didn't love him. She wasn't allowed to love. Who needs love? Love sucks. She _hated _him. Look at all the shit he'd gotten her into! Right now she was sitting in what appeared to be a damn boxcar because of _him. _She'd nearly lost her mind _twice _because of _him. _She couldn't even decipher he own goddamn thoughts _because of him. _He made her confused. With his stupidly gorgeous eyes and his damn grin. He made her stupid. She shouldn't have let him touch her.

_I think that maybe you are being a bit harsh on the man. _Piotr offered.

_Shut up! I am totally rational! _Rogue screeched.

_You're really scary when you're rational…_ Bobby commented meekly.

Rogue physically growled.

The movement of the train ground to a halt.

"We're here!" Riptide interrupted her thoughts, tying a blindfold around her eyes.

_Low down, no good, dirty Cajun. _Rogue continued to curse as she was hefted over Riptide's shoulder. _Egg-exploding, useful mutation, accented jerk! _She grunted in pain as she was jarred as Riptide leaped down . from the train. _Keeps gettin' me into trouble. _She continued to brood as Riptide continued to walk. _Shouldn't have touched him. Jackass. I've known him for a week! A week! Even Logan didn't get me into this much trouble in the first week I met him. _Sounds of doors opening and closing. _And _he _stabbed me in the chest! I shouldn't have stolen his wallet. Damn him and his wallet to hell! _

"Ah," Riptide spoke again after what seemed like a lifetime of internal swearing and wincing in pain every time he took a step. "Here we are," The blind fold was ripped off of her eyes as she was thrown into a room.

Rogue grunted in pain, sucking in a tight breath as she rolled across the floor with the force that had been used to hurl her there, eyes sealed shut as she ground her teeth, barely holding back her curses. After a few moments of five men screaming in her head that it would be best of she found out her situation before she started kicking and screaming she opened her eyes.

Darkness shadowed the entire room, so it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust. And when they did, she wished they hadn't.

"Shit!" She gasped, wriggling as fast she could with her arms and legs tied to the other figure on the floor. "Remy!" She panted, looking over his battered form with a sharp pain in her chest that had nothing to do with her ribs. He looked like hell. Unconscious, possibly dead, hell. A cut ran across the length of his cheek bone, marring his rugged good looks, the blood from it ran down his face and smeared across his jaw line. His lean body was scattered with bruises and burns that were visible through his torn clothing. His shoulder was bleeding again. The back of his head was damp with blood as well. "Remy!" She yelled louder and tried to jostle him awake, tears building painfully behind her eyes and in her throat. "Remy LeBeau! Yah wake tha hell up rahght now, or so help meh Jesus Ah will kill yah mahself fah dyin'!" She screamed.

Remy groaned and mumbled something unintelligible, where the only words that Rogue could make out were '_chere', 'belle', _and _'ange' _and unconsciously moved a hand to rest on arm.

"Thank God," Rogue gasped and pressed her face into his shirt to blot out the tears and to feel his warmth. At least she was here with him.

_Told ya' so. _John snorted and something that sounded like a high-five reverberated around the inside of her head.

"Didn't I say they were cute?" Someone said from behind her and Rogue snapped her head around, her eyes green fire. Riptide leaned against a wall next to four other figures she didn't recognize.

"Very." A colder, darker, scarier voice commented and Rogue whipped her head around again.

Two glowing red orbs which she could only assume were eyes dissected her from the shadows.

-

_Not exactly what I saw myself doing with this chapter when I posted the last one, but I like this much better. Just wanted to comment here at the bottom that for anybody's who's interested, I have posted a to-do list on my profile full of all of the fun projects I have coming up. (But it's cool if you don't, I know people have better things to do than read my crazy.)_

_And now, for the French!-_

_Permettez-moi d'aller se battre moi comme un homme que vous bâtards- _Let me go and fight me like a man you bastards

_Je vais te tuer, faites glisser vous hors de l'enfer, tuer vous à nouveau, et cracher sur vos tombes!- _I'll kill you, drag you out of hell, kill you again, and spit on your graves! (_It is entirely possible that Remy gets a little violent when captured.) _

_J'ai une question particulière à régler avec vous, tu m'as tué une fois. Je n'ai pas oublié.- _I have a particular issue to deal with you, you killed me once. I have not forgotten.


	27. Chapter 27

_The street light cast a dank glow into the street, reflecting off of the mist that flitted from the sky down to the ground, settling on his body as he lay in the back streets of the city that had taken him in as a child- saw his eyes and invited him to join the hordes of freaks and criminals that already infested the streets of New Orleans. And look where that got him. _

_A groan of pain ripped itself out of his lungs as another fire lit itself under his skin. _

_What had those scientists done to him? After stealing him off of the very streets he now lay, 'Weapon X' had rearranged something. Changed something. _

_He'd had control. _

_He'd had his demon eyes. _

_He wanted them both back. They made him who he was. He couldn't live without them. _

"_Merde." He moaned, the burning sensation kicking up to another level of agony. The arms he had crossed over his stomach tightened their hold across the center of the fire in his chest. His teeth ground together with enough force that the sound of grinding drown out the rest of the world. _

_The string of events that had led him to laying on a back street, writing in agony, alone in the night weren't entirely clear to him at the moment. He knew it involved Julien at some point. _

_A knife. _

_A cigarette burn. _

_An explosion. _

_The fire flared, sending his pants for breath into near nonexistence as he dragged one rough gasp into his lungs and held his breath to limit the motions that seemed to fuel the fire as he struggled to keep it contained._

_He turned his accusing brown eyes to the heavens, the gloss of tears amplified the innocence of the question in his eyes- Why? What had he done to deserve this? Was there no mercy?_

_The street light flickered out, leaving him alone in dark. _

_A shattered sob escaped his lips as he continued to stare up at the stars in the sky, the only source of light he could find in this dark situation. _

…_Until he noticed two small pits of glowing red that could have been eyes if they had held an emotion other than 'merciless'. _

"_I find it sad that a young man of your incredible abilities would simply allow himself to be beaten and abandoned in the back streets of a slummy city." The dark figure belonging to the eyes said conversationally, as if finding men writing in pain in the gutter was a daily occurrence for him. _

"_Who the hell are you?" He ground out, immediately on defense, learning quickly that the entirety of the world was turned against him in some sick twist of fate. _

"_Call me Sinister." Said the man. "But I prefer to think of myself as… a saint."_

"_Y' don' look like any saint I've ever seen 'fore."_

"_Because, I'm sure you've seen so many, Remy." The man chuckled. "I'm here to help you." _

"_Sure." He said in what was meant to be a sarcastic tone, but really came out as more of a growl as the pain under his skin spiked again. It didn't even dawn on him that while Sinister had offered up his own name, he had made no such sacrifice._

"_I understand you have an issue with control." Sinister continued in the same chatty form. "What if I could make it go away?"_

_He hesitated, wary of the stranger. _

"_The pain-?"_

_-Burned. _

"_Your eyes-?"_

_-Were normal. _

"_Your control-?"_

_-Was a thing of the past._

"_What would you do to make it all go away?" The red of the other man's eyes glowed. _

"_Anything." Remy gritted his teeth again, pulling the charge out of his gloves as he lost control again. _

_A Cheshire smile appeared below the eyes. _

"_That's exactly what I wanted to hear." _

-

Remy woke up violently.

-

_(JAMIE) I'm a bad author. With writer's block. (The writer's block's name is Pat*. Feel free to verbally harass it.) But I'm sick and I'm tired and I have to write an essay comparing Odysseus and Captain Kirk. (Awesome.) I'm really, really, _really _sorry if the next chapter isn't out in a speedy fashion. (Good news- It'll be longer and contain a plot monster!) Nap time for this chica. _

_*Yes, I named my writer's block. _


	28. Chapter 28

_JAMIE: *BITCH-SLAPS PAT* MOFO, I AM __BACK__! On a more anti-climactic note- Medical Mystery= H pylori+ Mononucleosis. It took three months and about a quart of my blood to figure that out. _

_BAHAHAH! ON TO THE STORY! _

-

Rogue held her breath, eyes darting across the five people she could see fully. The woman with green hair that was constantly twisting a box of matches around in her fingers to pair with the pack of cigarettes at her hip, the shaved bald man was rubbing at what looked like a burn mark on his forearm, the dark haired woman stay silent and still, and the man with tan hair cocked his head and smirked at her, wheeling the two harpoons in his hands around menacingly. Riptide crouched in the corner. The red eyes bore holes into her.

She ground her teeth together and stuck out her chin defiantly, adopting an aggressively protective body language as she put herself between them and Remy.

_This is not a smart plan, kid! _Logan informed her.

_Don't care. _She glared around, begging them to start something- touch her, grab her, anything. She just needed something to work with.

The glowing orbs that could have counted as eyes just as much as portals to hell glistened with amusement, maybe guessing what she was thinking.

"Do you know who I am?" They asked.

_I know that I'm gonna kick the shit outta you. _Rogue growled deep in her throat, but offered no verbal answer.

_Calm yourself! _Piotr tried to be diplomatic.

"I didn't think so," The owner of the eyes sighed as if he could hear her thoughts and stepped out of the shadows.

Rogue's eyes went wide.

His hair was black, slicked back. His skin was so pale it almost appeared to be a translucent blue. His smile was sharp and uncaring with eye teeth that looked to be pointed. He was tall, seeming to fill up the room with nothing but his presence. His suit was black. But, the most imprinting thing about him was his eyes, which seethed red.

"I realize this is a rather impromptu meeting." The man spoke in a clipped tone. "But I assure you, our meeting was predicted by fate, my little untouchable."

Rogue shuddered at the way he addressed her. She bit her tongue to choke back a whimper and unconsciously scooted closer to the body next to her.

"Oh, how rude of me, I haven't introduced myself." He chuckled, a dark rumbling sound that sent waves of chills down Rogue's spine. "I'm afraid sometimes time escapes me when I'm caught up in my newest dreams. My name is Mr. Sinister."

_Apt. _Rogue thought grimly.

_Set this asshole on fire. _John growled.

"Now tell me," The man stooped down so that he was close to her. In her face. Impossible to ignore or wish away. "What do you want most in this world?"

"For you to back up out of my face." Rogue rumbled.

He smirked. "Oh, I like this one."

"You're gonna like me a lot better once I get outta these cuffs and get mah fingers 'round your neck." She assured him.

"I see why he fell for you," Sinister chuckled. "He would have said the exact same thing."

Rogue pressed her back protectively against Remy's body.

_If he touches Remy… _She began to grind out more threats.

_Collect yourself, child! _Erik commanded. _If you do something rash it could cost your life as well as his. _

Rogue exhaled sharply through her nose at the same instance she became aware of the nightmare thrashing of the man at her back.

"What if I told you I could fix your problems?" Sinister leaned closer to her, distracting her.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught the dark, knowing, smirks of the five others in the room

"W-what do you mean?" She stuttered, unsure of herself for the first time since entering the room.

"I can give you control." His cold breath crashed against her skin. "I can _give _you touch."

Rogue hesitated.

Touch.

He was offering her the one thing she couldn't resist. She felt herself being wooed by the idea. Even the very concept of free contact with someone else- anyone else-. Her heartbeat slowed and her eyelids drooped as her imagination ran away with her. Sunshine. Shorts. Hugs. Handshakes. Kisses.

She clenched her teeth and pressed herself closer to the body behind her.

"No." She spat.

"Hmm." Sinister pretended to contemplate her answer. "If not touch, then maybe I could-."

"_Vous mentez!" _Remy woke up violently, the muscles that had been seizing in the spasms of nightmares uncoiled furiously as he lashed out against his restraints, thrashing to the extent of his ability.

The Marauders leaped forward on their tense muscles, weapons and manifestations were held up.

"_Everyone stop_!" Sinister hissed, standing at full intimidating height. His eyes roared with fire and the room seemed to grow a shade darker.

Remy breathed heavily, his quick mind recovered rapidly from the terror of the memory and was already probing every possibility for escape as his eyes darted around every corner of the room, looking for fault. The walls were solid and the floor was metal, too easy to charge- he'd kill everyone. Five Marauders stood between him and the door. No windows. No other route of egress.

He pushed himself in front of Rogue, taking control of the protective trait now that he was awake. His elbow accidentally grazed her ribs.

"Sorry, _chere." _He mumbled.

"'S fine." Rogue groaned out, clamping her teeth down on her lip to keep her pained yelps at bay.

"I'll get you out of here." He promised her, eyes back to probing.

She rested her cheek on his shoulder and nodded, laying her trust with him.

"Gambit," Sinister smiled at the newly conscious man. "Good to see you alive and well, wouldn't want any permanent damage to one of my best investments."

Remy's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"What is he talking about?" Rogue breathed.

"You know," Sinister continued leisurely. "The others I've collected were useful for brute work, collections, murders, as you well know- but, you. Never could find another person of your … talents."

"Remy…?" Rogue's confusion overwhelmed her panic, registering in Remy's empathy.

"He's a lair." Remy growled. "Don' listen t' any word he says or promise he makes."

Sinister scoffed good-naturedly, the curve of his lips leaving the smallest of hints that something darker was going on behind his friendly façade, which Remy knew would disappear from existence the moment the contract he was pining for was signed in blood.

"Gambit, Gambit, Gambit," Sinister shook his head. "I always deliver on my promises." Remy was about to spit out some very colorful words on what exactly he thought of Sinister's '_promises' _when he was cut off by a few words that made the blood drain from his face and his heart stop dead in his chest. "I was actually about to offer the little untouchable in the corner one before you so rudely interrupted."

Rogue's strained emotions flared with fear and discomfort and he grappled to keep them in the realms of control with his empathy at the same time as his wild eyes searched around the room again for a point of escape. There had to be a way out! There was _always _a way out!

He could break his wrist and slip the cuffs… They'd notice him wince in pain.

He could charge one of the links and blow the restraints off- worse case scenario he lost a hand, best case he had a few more scars to add to the collection. …Rogue was too close, she'd get hurt.

He could…

Remy's eyes went wider and his search became more frantic.

He could… He could…

His breathing became hard.

_He could…_

His obvious distress was driving Rogue insane. Her emotions became harder and harder to maintain as she grew more and more distraught.

"So, little one," Sinister crouched down again.

There was a way! There had to be a way!

"If you wont accept the freedom of touch…"

His coat was gone, he didn't have his lock picks, bo, or his cards.

"…what if I offered you something more?…"

The slight weight in his front pocket was completely useless if he couldn't get his hands on it.

"… Another sort of freedom…"

Rogue whimpered and pressed herself closer to him. He didn't even have to look to know that she was biting her lip. Her chin was stuck out as she tried to discourage the idea that she was afraid. She would fight for herself. She would fight for the lying bastard in front of her as well.

Sinister's twisted smile reflected in Rogue's wide eyes."… From the voices, Marie."

Remy's head snapped up.

_The voices. _

An idea that felt less like an idea and more like a swift and repetitive kick between the legs from his conscience just to remind him that it was still there and disapproved of this 'plan'.

-

_*waggly eyebrows* _

_How was that for a coming-out-of-a-slump chapter?_

_Vous mentez!- You lie!_

_(P.S. The ability to resist putting cookies into stories is not one I possess) _


	29. Chapter 29

_I actually started to write this a couple of chapters ago so that there were power inhibitors… but then I realized that dat don' make nooo sense. So we're just going to pretend this universe has no power inhibitors. Si? Si!_

_-_

A steady stream of colorful words spewed out of the Wolverine's mouth as he worked the weapon stuck through his chest out of the wood of the wall behind him. The darkest thoughts a human was capable of thinking wound their way through his mind.

His home had been invaded.

His family had been hurt.

His 'kid' had been stolen.

And as far as he could see, all roads lead back to Remy LeBeau.

"_Motherfuuuuccc-." _He gritted out as the harpoon twisted with his grip and finally became dislodged from the wall.

He hit the ground growling, pausing only a second to let the worst of the damage heal up before he ran over to the lay out of unconscious bodies on the floor.

Very slowly Piotr, Ororo, Jubilee, and Warren roused themselves.

"What happened?" Jubilee rubbed at the bruise on her forehead.

"Oww…" Warren groaned, flexing his wings uncomfortably.

Piotr looked down at his hands, clenching his fists. "I am remembering a woman with green hair, and am feeling that I owe something."

Ororo looked around with wide eyes that landed on the blood covered harpoon on the floor. "Logan! Where's Remy?" She demanded. "What happened here?"

"They took him." Logan snarled. "They held a knife up to Rogue's throat and he surrendered."

"_Who?" _She hissed, eyes turning white.

"I-" Logan started to snap as response, but cut himself off when he noticed something odd. His breath fogged out in front of him as the room plunged in temperature. "The hell?" He turned to see a thick layer of ice cover the wall.

Bobby Drake shattered the door of the room he had been locked in, discarding the sling that was keeping his arm still as he stepped out into the hall. His eyes were cold fire. He walked solidly into the kitchen where the majority of the X-men were nursing headaches with a stiff body.

They all looked up at him, dumbfounded.

"Where. Is. Rogue?" He asked coldly with a steely determination in his eyes.

"We don't know." Wolverine growled. "Her and Gambit were kidnapped."

The temperature dipped several more degrees and Bobby's fists frosted over.

"Wait." Storm breathed, looking up suddenly. "I have an idea!" She scrambled into a standing position, holding her head as she sprinted down the hall, closely followed by the confused masses. "Remy LeBeau," She muttered under her breath as she logged in to her computer. "If you could do what I told you for once in your life, god dammit, let it be now."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a little device that she was almost positive Remy had never thought was going to be any use to him, especially save his life.

-

There was probably some saying somewhere that one should never make deals with a man who kidnaps and hold you hostage.

Rogue had never heard that saying.

To be fair, Remy had never heard the one about not accepting offers from random men who knew your name that don't seem surprised to find you writhing in pain in the gutter of the back alleys of New Orleans.

She looked around with wide eyes.

The voices.

_Don't listen! _Logan warned. _It's a con!_

Her lips parted as she whimpered again, expressing the deep want that settled in on her chest, making it harder or her to breathe than the crushed ribs did. Freedom to touch _and _freedom from the voices.

Her vision blurred with pleasure at just the thought. She closed her eyes to savor the moment. Touch. Freedom. Silence.

Remy's elbow grazed her rib, forcing a pained intake of breath to hiss between her teeth and drawing her out of her fantasy world and back into harsh reality. Breaking her away from her daydreams and delusions and into a world of darkness and truth.

It hurt a little bit more than it should have.

"_Don't listen t' any word he says or promise he makes!" _He had rumbled earlier with the gritty sort of grudge that one only gets from dealing with a particular brand of bastard for too long.

Her eyes opened.

"What am I supposed to say to that?" She growled.

"Yes." Sinister smirked. "The intention here was or you to say 'yes'."

The body shielding her grew tenser. The rigid formation of his shoulders looked as if it would shatter if tested. A growl rose up in his throat.

"Don't touch her." Remy warned. The red of his eyes was almost luminescent, piercing through the darkness of the cold metal room with a great deal more intensity than the other pair of red eyes in the room had ever felt.

His mind was working at a million miles a second, trying to come up with some plausible scheme. He had a plan. But… this plan had a hole in it the size of New Jersey. Assuming everything went according to plan, and leaving a little breathing room for his possible (likely) death, Rogue would still be left alone in the middle of east-Jesus-nowhere. Couldn't have that, now could he?

And despite all indicators to the contrary, Remy LeBeau still had one trick up his sleeve.

One problem was, he couldn't reach it all the way in his front pocket.

"Or what, Gambit?" Sinister sneered.

"_Or," _Remy picked his way around the building amount of threats in his head. His lips curled into a twisted smile. "_Or _I'll start from the left with Harpoon. I'll probably wanna savor watching the light fade from his eyes for a few seconds before I move on, slashing or charging my way through as many as them as I can get, which I'm just gonna go ahead and assume won't be the majority of them. Then, with your damn Marauders scattered and y' scary red eyes getting' wide with fear, I hope t' God I still have enough strength left in me t' watch you get blasted half way t' hell."

Rogue leaned herself into him sharply, obviously telling him to shut the hell up before he got them both killed.

He wasn't really in a listening mood right now.

Sinister's eyes sparked with annoyance.

"You think you're getting out of this, Gambit?"

"I don't think shit." Remy smirked. "I _know." _

"Really?" Sinister leant down closer to him. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"

"Can't ruin the surprise, now can I?" Remy chuckled. "You'll know it when y' see it. Or, rather, when y' don't. 'Cause the first thing that's gonna go are those eyes of yours." Playing the game. Wind up the Sinister. Make him think you have more than the clothes on your back and the blood in your veins. Make him think you know something he doesn't.

And it was working.

Sinister lashed out, his hand ended at Remy's throat and Remy's head made contact with the wall. Rogue lashed out, only to be restrained.

Something clattered out of his pocket.

Something very small that at the time Remy was given it, he was positive that it would never help him in any way, especially not to save his life.

"You think you can challenge me, boy?" Sinister demanded. "I _own _you."

Remy grinned.

Faster than anyone could comprehend, he lashed out with his boot, stomping down hard on the little 'x' that had fallen out of his pocket, opening up the communicator.

"_Location locked." _A mechanical female voice rang out hollowly.

Remy couldn't help but laugh, the smile not even being wiped off his face when he was thrown to the ground and Sinister crushed the little 'x' under the heel of his boot.

The laughs weren't expelled from Remy's throat, even when Harpoon's boot made repetitive contact with his ribs a few times.

He didn't stop smirking, even when blood spat out of his mouth.

"Stop it!" Rogue screamed. Desperation tugged her to sustain the pain.

"Somethin' didn' go accordin' t' plan?" He inquired upwards, accent thick for the moment because all of the pain made it hard to move his mouth coherently.

Hot damn, he felt like a bastard.

Sinister paced for a moment, mind twisting and turning darkly, changing strategy. Breeding new plans. He couldn't kill Gambit, he was to valuable. Things had gotten done at nearly a quarter of the speed he would have liked since he had lost him. But there had to be a way to control him…

His red eyes glimmered.

"Blockbuster," He called on the stupid one, "Fetch me the latest experiment." He commanded.

Blockbuster nodded, throwing the Rogue he was holding to the ground and then scrambled his large frame out of the room.

Remy's eyes narrowed of their own accord as he subtly moved closer to Rogue.

"Shit," Rogue breathed wetly. Air wheezed in and out of her mouth. "Punctured lung." She gasped out, coughing.

"_Merde." _Remy snarled, adding another reason why he was going to maim all of them to the already large list.

Rogue looked up at him with those big green eyes, a shield of pained tears glossed over them. Her teeth were clamped over her lower lip, stifling the sobs of pain he knew she must be feeling. Her chin was set defiantly forward.

It was at this exact second Remy started feeling awful for what he was about to do. He had already felt bad, but now he felt really, _really _awful. His chest hollowed out where there should have been emotion, leaving him cold and alone next to the girl he was about to break just to save her life.

With this abandonment came a sour discovery.

No, he wasn't the same as the men looming over him.

He was worse.

He let go of his hold on her emotions. He didn't want to subdue them, he needed to push them out of control. He needed a spark o anger. An iota of hurt.

"_Chere…" _He said softly, snagging her attention.

"Hmm?" She struggled to keep a steady stream of air into her lungs.

"I-" He hesitated. Only for a second. "I got somethin' to tell you."

She looked at him with curiosity. What could be so important to come up now?

Remy squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to see her face.

"The truth."

_-_

_Good Golly Jeepers! What's going on? What's Sinister's experiment? _

_Heh… heheheheheh… heh. Anybody know what Remy's plan is? (I was a little surprised no one guessed it last chapter. It was sortof like 'PREHAPS I AM MORE DEVIOUS THAN I FIRST SUSPECTED!') _

_My fingers are sad typing this up. This story is coming to an end soon. :C. BUT! Remember… it has to get worse before it gets better. _

_Heh… heheheheheh…_

_Next Chapter- Some wicked Kick-Assery. _


	30. Chapter 30

_I promised gore. I WILL GODDAMN GIVE YOU GORE. _

_-_

Remy LeBeau didn't have any more beliefs in gods. He didn't have a fear of damnation. He didn't have a thirst for redemption. He didn't have demons to cower from. He didn't have angels to take shelter with.

What he did have was a scary pair of eyes, a cold black hole that he was positive took up residence in the place his heart used to live, and a life story.

_She was confused. In pain. Concerned. _Nothing he could work with.

Shame crawled up his spine as he took a light breath, letting the air linger for a moment on his blood stained lips before he had to seal the fate of everyone in that room. He looked down at the girl in his lap. The soft silence ended too quickly with the hard truth.

"_Le Diable Blanc _was born in a hospital in Louisiana. I could never find out exactly where. For a child, everything is pure and untainted, completely innocent in intentions and values, and I'm sure for a half a heart beat, he had it too. The naivety. The innocence. And then he had to open his damn eyes. His parents wanted absolutely nothing to do with the demon they had created. He grew up on the streets. Thin. Weak. Desperate. Everything was competition. Got as many black eyes and broken bones as he gave. Picking pockets so that you could make your meals and making your meals so that you could pick pockets. Now this boy, this fool of a child, was good at it. He played the street like a game of cards. Called bluffs. Saw tells. Opportunities.

"He died trying to take advantage of one of these 'opportunities'."

_She was understanding. She knew what the streets felt like. Being reduced to stealing. _Dammit.

"Remy LeBeau sprung into existence the very second Jean Luc LeBeau wrapped his hand around the kid's wrist, and to his never ending shock, grinned. Remy LeBeau was allowed a rarity. A family. Smiles. Warmth. Safety. But not peace. Never peace. But it was close. So close he could almost taste it. And all he needed to get it was a ring. An engagement ring.

"Beginning, middle, end- it didn't work out. Remy LeBeau died the same day he presented that pretty blond with that little gold ring. In the back room, her brother was on the phone with a very important man, discussing the mutant problem.

"Remy was my favorite.

"I miss him."

_The pain in her chest tripled as she took a sharp breath, momentarily distracting her from feeling anything beyond white hot pain. _One step forward two steps back.

"Experiment number 952643 took his first breath the second he walked out of that house and ran into a man named Victor. 952643 started the fight. Victor ended it. 952643 woke up on 'The Island'. He was there for two years. Getting cut up. Getting injected. Don't know what they were looking for. Don't much care, to be honest. Nights were dark. Days were darker. His life was more of a smudge of pain and blood than an actual existence. Slicing at his eyes. Burning things against his skin. But, he was still a clever kid.

"For scientist, they weren't a very perceptive bunch. He broke off the tip of the needle inside his skin. I suppose they were too busy sticking in more needles to notice. He had to dig it out later. Spent an hour and a half digging deep into his own skin to get the entire damn piece out. The he picked the lock one-handed.

"He died the second he snuck out of that place.

"He just didn't know it yet."

_She was shocked and appalled and understanding. _

"He hoped that Remy was back. That everything was going to be alright.

"And then Julien Bordereaux had to interfere. Cornered the kid. Decided to put out a cigarette on his arm.

"Julien Bordereaux died the same night that Pawn opened his eyes.

"Pawn needed a little help and was wiling to sell his soul to get it. He was a bastard. Plain and simple. He did everything and anything asked of him in an attempt to square away his debts, which for all intents and purposes, were impossible to be rid of.

"Pawn evolved into Killer.

"Killer grew to Monster.

"All of them had three things in common. They were liars and thieves. They all answered to 'Gambit'."

_She was willing. Willing to understand. Willing to soothe._

"I am a liar.

"I am a thief.

"I've caused the deaths of dozens of people. Innocent people.

"I've personally killed a few others.

"I've lied to _you."_

_There. A flash of hurt. A hint of reproach. _Remy locked in on it.

"I have enhanced agility and a mild empathy. I was in Baltimore to steal a painting. The scars on my eyes are from the scientists. The burn on my arm is from Julien. The scar on my chest is from a harpoon aimed for my life."

_Offended. Insecure. _He urged the emotions forward, denying her any control over them.

"I've lied to you and I've stole your time ever since you met me."

_Vehemence. _He added more fuel to the fire.

"I'm using you."

_Fury. He _pushed her emotions farther out of control.

"For what, I'm not to sure of. You almost made me feel human. More like a Remy, less like a Gambit.

"Don't matter.

"Sins are still sins when there's an explanation for them."

_Disgust. _He pressed forward.

"Face it, chere. You laid your trust in a bastard."

_Malice._

"And it ain't gonna get you anywhere but dead."

Anna Marie D'Ancanto was thoroughly pissed off.

Logan 'The Wolverine' Howlett was thoroughly pissed off.

John 'Pyro' Allerdyce was thoroughly pissed off.

Bobby 'IceMan' Drake was thoroughly pissed off.

Only Piotr Rasputin and Erik Lensherr kept their cool.

Rogue's body had gone completely rigid while he was talking. Her muscles locked, her bones set, her teeth clenched, her breath held. The throbbing of the pain in her chest echoed her heart beat, pushing the blood throughout her body so that it seeped out of the cuts in her skin. Pooled in the bruises all over her body. None of these pains compared to the burning in her head.

_How dare he! _She snarled. Her fists clenched tighter.

Logan fumed silently. Dangerously.

_Sonofabitch! _John was itching to get his hands around Remy's throat. For the first time in perhaps history, Bobby was in complete agreement.

_Calm yourselves! _Erik snapped. _The boy is obviously trying to manipulate a response. He said he had empathy. Your emotions had been forced into this state. _

_Which is just another goddamn thing we owe him for. _Bobby griped, completely unfazed by this logic.

_But now he has told the truth, _Piotr tried to argue. _He is not lying to you any more. _

Rogue felt herself calm slightly of her own accord.

Remy struggled for a tighter grip on her emotions.

The anger flared back up.

Whispers. In her head. In her thoughts.

_Aww, isn't that cute. She really liked him didn't she?_

_Poor, poor, little Marie. _

_Did the big bad boy lie to you, Marie?_

Remy watched her brow crease familiarly. Her eyes press shut painfully. His plan was working. As much as it was hurting him it was working. Slowly, mind you, but working.

She fought again to gain command of her emotions, but Remy pushed them farther out of control.

_Told you he wouldn't miss you, Marie_.

_He doesn't even _like _you, Marie. _

_Who would?_

The metal around her wrists distorted almost imperceptibly.

She squeezed her eyes shut harder.

Remy watched her anxiously, wincing every time her emotions spiked, black eyes filled with pain. Even though he'd forced her there, her hatred still hurt.

Rogue bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

Remy kept his eyes on her, even as Blockbuster hustled his way back in through the door.

"As fun as this story time has been," Sinister cut in, having been at ease to watch Gambit hurt the only person who was giving a damn about him at the moment, blissfully unaware of his plan. Sinister had a vague grasp of the normal person's state of mind, something that came in very handy when he was manipulating. He was very sure that he had Gambit pinned down like a butterfly corpse on cork. Tacked up on a wall to be manipulated to the owner's whims. He knew Gambit was expecting him to make the final move in the game of wits he'd engaged in. End it. Once and for all. Sinister just assumed this was a desperate move from the man to have a clear conscience before it was over.

He was half right.

"We have to be moving on." He continued, smirking as he opened his palm, waiting for the mammoth man to drop the small box he had just retrieved into his hand.

_Poor Poisoned Marie. _

_Lusting after Liars._

A strangled sound escaped Rogue's throat.

Remy cringed as he felt the new emotions pile on. Added shame ran through his center as he urged them out of control.

His plan was working.

But not fast enough.

"Tell me, Gambit," Sinister lifted a syringe out of the box. Remy's blood ran colder than it already was. "Do you remember what you were being tested for on that island?"

_Silly little freak, Marie._

Remy ground his teeth together and tried to avoid looking at the pointed tip of the needle. "Something' 'bout mind control." He growled, trying to buy enough time.

It escaped everyone's notice the small amount of fog that billowed from his lips.

"You're very close." Sinister smirked.

_Vampiric monster, Marie._

"The X-gene reacts uniquely to certain toxins and chemical introduced to the system," He continued to explain, unaware of the ticking time bomb. "Making previously implausible opportunities, such as thought reform, become incredibly conceivable."

The dull throbs of pain in her chest started to fade.

"Do you remember what it was like to lose complete control?" Sinister's smile was sharp enough to cut through the waves of horror radiating off of Remy.

_Marie…_

"Taking orders without a choice."

Remy's coal and blood eyes went wide with absolute panic as he was hauled upright again and pinned to the wall, struggling in vain as the needle was lowered closer to his neck.

"_My _orders, Pawn."

_Marie… _

The needle snapped before it made contact with skin.

"_**My name is not Marie." **_

"What?" The six standing looked at the girl sitting on the ground with taut muscles and a face composed of stone, confused. Sinister dropped Remy and turned his full attention to the girl.

Her eyes snapped open.

Pitch Black.

The shackles around her wrists and ankles contorted out of place as she wrenched her arms around in front of her, using them to vault herself forward, combat boots connecting with Blockbuster's jaw. The mammoth man tried to get a grip on her, but she twisted out of the way, forcing her hands against the ground long enough it turned to ice before standing and casting out her leg in a arching motion so that it united sharply with the floor.

Shards of ice scattered in every direction, embedding themselves into any flesh or soft tissue they came into contact with.

Blockbuster howled in pain, hands clutched over what had been his eye a few seconds ago, but now was a mess of destroyed tissue, soaking blood, and pieces of ice.

"Bitch!" He shouted, absolutely furious.

He looked up at her with his one eye and felt any feeling other than absolute dread leave him as the welts and cuts on her skin closed seamlessly.

She cocked back her leg and let fly a kick directly aimed at his mess of a face.

The other Marauders scrambled to regain their composure and get at to the girl standing in the center of the room.

Harpoon leapt at her, only to be intercepted by the steel-toed boot of Remy LeBeau, breaking his jaw.

"I do believe you and I have to have a little chat." Remy growled, the welts that the destroyed manacles had left on his wrists were red and raw.

"Been lookin' forward to it." Harpoon slurred, spitting some blood onto the ground.

Rogue stood solidly in the center of the room, black eyes watching the three squaring up around her with cool calculation and outright malice.

"Alright, kid." Riptide rolled his neck, releasing the tension built in his muscles. "Just stand down and we won't have to hurt you."

"I find it a very sad day when my fellow mutants don't know when to fight," Rogue smirked, southern accent converted momentarily to something smoother. "And when to flee for their lives."

Archlight struck out first, fist soaring through the air at Rogue with what surely would have been a killing blow to her skull.

Too bad it never connected.

A metal shaft from the ceiling shot downward, piercing the fist straight through the palm.

"Sonovabitch!" Riptide burst, watching Archlight scream in agony, tugging at the impaled hand, not being able to tear herself loose. Rogue leapt into to the air, Riptide took a step back out of shock at her sudden move. Her hands connected with the ground at his feet as she threw out her legs in his direction, using just her arms to launch herself back into to air, twisting so that not only did she take him out in a spectacularly graceful move, she landed on her feet lightly.

"It's just you and me then," Vertigo grinned, the smoke billowing from her cigarette gave her eyes a scalding glow.

"No," Rogue shook her head. "It's just me."

Vertigo threw out her arms at Rogue.

Her world tilted.

She went to her knees.

"Not so tough when you don't know which way is up, huh?" Vertigo giggled.

Rogue's stomach wretched.

Vertigo's boot connected with her ribs, shattering the barely healed fractures.

"You…" Rogue gasped.

"I what?" Vertigo sneered, knocking the ash off of the cigarette, exposing the red hot end.

"Really shouldn't smoke, shelia." Rogue chuckled. "Those things 'll kill ya."

The end of the cigarette exploded to flames and the shrill of Vertigo's screaming as she was consumed by inferno and the smell of burning hair and flesh became the only things detectable by the senses.

Which is why Rogue didn't notice Riptide get back up until the sharp pain of a bone spike shooting through her leg interrupted her insane cackle.

"You don't know who you're dealing with!" Riptide crowed, bruises already blooming across his face in the shape of her boots

"No," Rogue took a deep, collective breath. "I am thinking it is you who is the one that does not know who they are dealing with."

With a shout of fury and a swirl of mutation, Riptide let fly a barrage of spikes in her direction.

They connected with her stomach with a metallic clang.

The laugh that escaped Rogue's lips as the metal crawled across her skin held nothing short of cruelty.

She reached out faster than a flash, taking a hold of Riptide's neck, the metal coating protecting him from her deadly skin as she twisted.

There was a cull crunch and a wet gagging sound as she snapped his neck.

There was no remorse in her black eyes.

"You bitch!" Archlight yelled, hand still impaled on the metal shaft that was now slicked with blood. "When I get out of here-!"

A triplet set of bone claws snapped out of Rogue's fist and made quick friends with Archlight's jugular.

_That's enough! _Someone screamed inside of her head. It sounded an awful lot like her voice. _No more! I don't want anymore blood on my hands! _

The psyches receded back into her mind.

Her black eyes faded back to green.

A sad, empty green.

-

Harpoon wheeled his weapon of choice in his fingers, cocking his head to the side with a stupid grin that went well with the bruise on his chin.

Remy looked around for something he could use as ammunition.

The blade of the harpoon sliced through the air, radiating a red color as it cut deeply through Remy's chest and it felt like he had been burned rather than stabbed.

"_Au diable ce!" _Remy snarled, stripping off his shirt as he duckedunder another swipe of harpoon, simultaneously charging it to an almost impossible level. He came up twisting violently into a kick to Harpoon's chest, sending the larger man to the ground. Working quickly, he tied the furiously glowing shirt around his neck_. "Dites bonjour au diable pour moi," _He called, backing up quickly with one hand across his open chest._ "il ya des chances que lui et je vais bientôt rencontrer." _

An explosion echoed off of the walls, splattering blood across anything that wasn't fast enough to get out of the way.

Panting heavily, Remy LeBeau sunk to the ground. Everything about him hurt.

_You-_ His conscience started, but he shut it down.

Too tired to deal with that. Too much pain.

Goddammit, his chest hurt.

Remy looked around with a quickly blurring sight. He struggled to stand again, losing his grip across his chest because of all the slippery blood smeared across his body. 

"Rogue?" He coughed out. "Rogue!"

"I'm here." A voice came from behind him. He turned quickly on his heel.

Rogue looked up at him with empty eyes.

"_Chere?" _He put a hand on her shoulder and was completely relived when she didn't shrug it away.

"I-." She choked on a sob. "I killed them." She smacked his arm away. "_You _made me kill them! You manipulated my emotions!"

"It was the only way -."

"No!" She shook her head violently, white and brown hair flying in every direction. "I don't wanna hear it from you! You lied to me and you used me."

"Don't blame the boy." The shadows spoke. Sinister stepped out into the gory light. "You are very good at killing." He observed the mess with a dark smile. "You could be very useful to me. My offer to you still stands."

Rogue looked at him.

Her eyes fluxed to black.

-

Bobby Drake paced anxiously around the cabin of the Blackbird, his ice skin proclaimed him to be very irritated at the moment.

"Where the hell is she?" He snapped, looking out the window down below.

"We're almost there." Storm said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Where is 'there'?" Bobby snapped.

There was an explosion down on the ground.

"I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say 'there' is there." Jubilee watched the explosion.

"Aw, shit." Logan slammed his head into the wall.

The Blackbird was immediately landed.

"Y' didn' havta blow up the entire place!" Remy hopped around, attempting to put out the fire on his pant leg.

"You're right." Rogue snapped. "I should have lied and used someone else to blow it up."

Pant leg successfully extinguished, Remy LeBeau was now free to grovel for forgiveness.

"Rogue," He started.

"Rogue!" Bobby ran through the wreckage, putting out fires as he went. Rogue let him put his arms around her, neither accepting nor denying her ex-boyfriend the ability to touch her.

Remy bristled, but kept it to himself. He had no more claim over the girl.

"Remy!" Ororo dashed over what had probably once been a wall.

He looked up, and after a few tries, saw her among his fading vision.

"Remy! You're bleeding!"

"Really?" He looked down at his chest. Which was red. "Well… _merde."_

The ground pitched forward and he fell.

-

_You are now free to consume your fudge muffins._

_Au diable ce! - To hell with this!_

_Dites bonjour au diable pour moi, il ya des chances que lui et je vais bientôt rencontrer.- Say hello to the devil for me, chances are he and I will soon meet._


	31. Chapter 31

The punching bag groaned in protest as Rogue's fists made harsh contact with it again. And again. And again.

Sweat slicked back her hair and forced her skin to shine as the muscles underneath continued to uncoil furiously.

It had been two days and she was still livid.

It had been two days and Remy was still unconscious.

The line keeping the bag suspended snapped as she forced all of her fury into one jarring hit.

"Sonovabitch!" She hissed, clutching her bruised knuckles close to her chest.

All of her confused and heated emotions fumbled around inside of her awkwardly. Fury- she'd been lied to and used. Resentment- Maybe he hadn't even ever liked her at all. Maybe it was all a plot or a ploy. Sourness- Hell, maybe she'd never even fallen in 'love' with him in the first place. He had probably installed that emotion in her to get her more dependent on him. His eyes. His voice. His smile.

His damn stupid ability to get her into trouble!

She kicked the punching bag viciously on the ground, spitting out a colorful list of words as she went.

And now she had nothing again. She'd been so close.

She pounced on the bag, straddling it as her fists made craters in the surface.

She thought she'd had smiles.

Her fist struck the bag.

She thought she'd had touches.

Her fist struck the bag.

She thought she'd been in love.

The wrappings around her balled up hands started to come undone as she continued to strike the bag until her knuckles were bloody, and even then she continued.

"Manipulative bastard!" She screamed. Tears started streaming down her face. Her arms continued to strike out. Blood spattered against her face as her knuckles continued to split open, but she was beyond the point of caring. Eventually her vicious strikes died down to nothing more than her batting her fists against the bag as she sobbed.

She felt the warmth of hands fall down on her shoulders, but ignored it.

She allowed herself to be eased into a standing position, but did not respond.

She was afraid that if she looked up she'd see another smile. Another fake. Just like her friends who plastered on faces when they saw her. Just like _him _every time he locked eyes with her.

All part of a scheme.

"Rogue?" The person in front of her rumbled with concern as she kept her eyes tacked to the ground. "Rogue?" They repeated, She till didn't look up. "Marie?"

"Don't call me that." She growled, looking up to glare at Logan.

Logan looked over the girl in his arms ad realized she was angry. Ferally so. She hadn't spoken to anyone in two days. She'd just seclude herself in the Danger Room or the gym and spend hours and hours collecting cuts and bruises. She had a chip on her shoulder. Gravel in her gut and spit in her eye.

It reminded him of the chip on his shoulder. The gravel in his gut and the spit in his eye.

She had started growling rather than speaking. Glaring rather than seeing. Drinking rather than dealing.

He felt a sharp pain pass through the spot where his heart resided when he thought about her possibly turning into him.

"Rogue," He said again. The defiance in her now dry eyes kicked up another notch from the tone in her voice. "This isn't healthy." He took her wrist, intently looking at the torn flesh on her knuckles.

"What d' yah care?" She rumbled.

"I do care." Logan leaned forward, trying to keep eye contact with her as she turned away her face. "Talk to me, kid. Tell me what happened."

"Don't call me kid."

"So I ain't allowed to call you Marie, I ain't allowed to call you 'kid'," He mused to keep himself from snarling. "What's next?"

"Nothin'." She snapped, wrenching herself out of his grip. "Everythin'. Don't call me Marie, don't call me kid, don't call me Rogue, don't call me darlin', don't call friend, don't call me _chere, _flat out don't call me at all." Rogue rumbled as she stomped out of the room.

Logan stood still, stunned into submission.

She was so isolated now, she wouldn't even talk to him.

He was thinking quickly now, pacing across blood speckled floor as his mind worked.

She was being distant, and usually he was the one to make her interact. Before it had been Bobby as well. And if he couldn't do it, and Rogue had politely implied that Bobby should take his apologies and discreetly shove them up his ass when he tried, who was left?

After a few more moments of brooding, Logan decided that he should be there to greet Gumbo when he woke up so that they could have a 'pleasant' conversation about what the hell he had done to Rogue.

His boots struck the cold floors of the underbelly of the Xavier Institute with resounding thuds and impending doom and the spaces in between his knuckles ached with the barely suppressed urge to unsheathe hell as he stomped his way to the med lab and threw open the door. He came up short when his eyes finally took in what he was seeing there.

A little girl was perched on Gambit's bandaged stomach, leaning forward with her hands planted on his shoulders as she started straight down into his closed eyes.

"Uh…" Logan said as way of introduction.

The little looked up at his sharply, brown eyes narrowing with the intrusion. "Do you know this man?" She demanded.

"Yes…" Logan hesitated his response, though he was positive he had seen this girl around the Institute before in the younger groups.

She leaped off of Gambit's stomach in a flash, balled up her fists in the front of Logan's shirt as she dragged him down to eye level with a blazing glare.

"What color are his eyes?" She snarled, pink hair falling into her eyes and across the bones that protruded out of her face.

-

'_Nother chapter tomorrow! (I already wrote it :D) _


	32. Chapter 32

_MY COMPUTER DIIIIIIEEEED!. DEAD. TAMARA KICKED THE BUCKET AND I HAD TO SHOCK HER BACK TO LIFE. (She's working again now.) Point is, I lost the chapter and had to rewrite this shite out of the fudge, Tamara? YOU'RE WORSE THAN PAT! 'S cool. 11:44, I still made it on time. :D._

-

Sarah kept her fists balled up in the man's shirt for a few long moments after he gave her the answer to her question, mind reeling. She shook her head, sending her pink hair flying about her face as she tried to snap herself back into reality.

"Red on black." She muttered, tearing the fabric of the Wolverine's shirt accidentally with the bony plates that jutted out of the back of her hands as she wrenched herself away and sprinted back to the unconscious man laid out on the bed.

She knew his face. The hard line of his jaw. The smooth planes of his cheeks. A few things were different, though, making her unsure at first, inspiring her intense scrutiny.

His lips weren't twisted into any sort of grin or sneer. His brow wasn't set in any semblance of defiance. His fingers weren't busy cutting decks. His red on black eyes weren't alive with emotion.

It was that insolent glare and shit eating grin that had plagued her dreams for years. Those fingers that had pulled her away from her nightmares. The blood. The bodies. It was those demon eyes that had routinely and firmly told her that everything was going to be okay.

"Is he…" She choked. "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Listen," Logan stepped forward.

She took a step back.

Logan could tell that though he was physically speaking with an eight year old, the young girl was aged beyond her years. There were shadows deep in her brown eyes.

"Yes, he's gonna be fine."

Some of the weight lifted off of her eyes with this news, but still the dark brown pools dissected him. "What do you want?" She demanded.

"I just wanted to have a friendly little chat with Gumbo over there." Logan said sarcastically as he crossed his arms over his chest impressively, and at her continuing analyzing glare, snapped the claws out of his fist to make his point.

"Try it!" She snarled, placing herself in between Logan and the man on the bed.

"Look, kid," Logan grunted. "I don't know how you know Gambit-."

"He saved my life!" Sarah growled, stunning Logan. "You wanna touch him, you're gonna have to go through me!" The bones extended further out of her skin in an intimidating fashion.

"As I remember, _petite," _The smooth as honey voice filled in the rifts it had made in her life the first time Sarah had heard it. She turned heel as fast as physically possible to see the man on the bed struggle to sit up. "You wouldn' have been in any need of savin' if it hadn't been for me." He grunted out.

"Wouldn't have been saved if it weren't for you, neither." She responded with such a magnitude of sass and a mocking southern accent that both Remy and Logan were stunned into silence.

Remy was quick to recover.

"In case you've forgotten, if I hadn't been involved in that mess, everybody down there would still be livin'." He finished smugly.

"Mister," She cocked out one of her hips with a level of tenacity most women don't develop until their teen years. "If there's one thing I've learned in my life that if somebody wants someone dead bad enough, there ain't no way that that story's gonna have a happy ending."

"But-." Remy started again, but Sarah cut him off.

"You can try and martyr your way into the wrong here, Mr. I-never-got-your-name," She gave him a no-nonsense tone. "The way I see it, everyone would have died in those sewers with or without you. The only thing you added or took away from that situation was me." She crossed her arms. "And if bringing the smallest bit of life out of a deadly situation isn't enough to make you hero, nothing will."

Again, Logan and Remy were stunned into silence.

Remy was confused by this little girl's perspective on his for-shit situation. In every scenario he had run in his mind of any way he could have changed the outcome of those sewers he ended up as the villain. The man with the demon eyes who damned innocent people. But, this little girl had stumped him.

He wasn't the bad guy?

"I'm not the bad guy?" He repeated out loud.

"If you were the bad guy," The little girl grinned. "I'd be a dead girl." She held out her hand. "My name's Sarah."

He took the hand.

"Remy."

Sarah giggled and blushed. "That's a pretty name."

"Glad you think so," Remy snorted and then grunted with pain.

"Are you alright?" Sarah flew from amusement to panic at a speed that reminded Remy of someone he knew was supposed to be important to him. Pain meds were making his brain slow. He ripped the IV out of his skin with disgust.

"Fine. _petite," _He mumbled to her. "Jus' tryin' t' remember what the hell I'm supposed to remember."

"Did it have something to do with Rogue and why she hasn't spoken to anyone in two days?" Logan growled.

A fear of God was stirred within Remy as his eyes went doe.

Rogue.

"_Merde, merde, merde!" _He started pacing frantically. _"Elle me déteste! Je ne vais jamais à être en mesure de faire de ce droit!" _

"Calm down." Logan snapped. "I want you to stop, rewind, and translate whatever the hell you just said into a reason why Rogue nearly broke herself earlier today on a punching bag."

"Is she alright?" Remy demanded quickly in his pacings, but rapidly reminded himself that he'd already be dead if she wasn't.

"_She's fine." _Logan stressed. "What I'm here for is to know what the hell happened. Like, how you got the little scrape on your chest or why the entire building went down."

"She didn't tell you?" Remy sat back down on the bed, getting dizzy from all the movement. Sarah quickly took the liberty of plopping down next to him.

"The phrases 'manipulated bastard' and 'lying sonofabitch' were thrown around a few times, but she didn't really go into detail." Logan grunted.

Remy sighed heavily and looked down at Sarah. She smiled up at him softly. The proof of his past mistakes looking up at him with big brown eyes full of joy to have found him again.

So he told the whole story. All of it's gory details. All of the bits that made him look like a jackass.

Everything.

Logan stood still, arms crossed over his chest, face shadowed as he listened intently.

Sarah had somehow wormed her way under Remy's arm and was sitting in his lap when he finished, eyes mystified.

"It didn't sound like you did anything bad." She wrinkled her nose with confusion. "If I were Miss Rogue, I wouldn't be mad at you."

"_Oui, mais, _she feels like I lied to her up to that point and the only reason I told her anything was so that I could use her." Remy explained, brow set with determination.

"You should give her flowers." Sarah suggested.

"She'd probably light them on fire." Remy sighed. "I think if I can talk t' her, maybe I can make her undersan-."

"No good." Logan was pacing back and forth, speaking for the first time since Remy's tale began. "She's more stubborn than you are, Cajun, and that's saying something considering you got yourself into this mess by refusing to lose in a no-win situation." He stopped pacing and scrubbed at his forehead. "Unfortunately, I know exactly what's gonna get you back on her good side."

"Wait." Remy's eyebrows creased with confusion. "Y'r helping me?" He attempted to pull some form of clarity out of a situation in which Logan was on his side.

"There are two things a man shouldn't be blamed for," Logan grunted. "Telling the truth and keeping the people he cares about safe."

There was a pause before Logan continued.

"When those bastards broke into the mansion, they gave you a choice. They said it was you or her, and you said you." Logan put hand down on Remy's shoulder. "That was the right answer."

"So what's your big plan?" Sarah snorted.

Logan sighed heavily as he plopped down in a chair. "Something like this happened to me two years ago," He explained. "When the cure came around. Rogue wanted to go and get it, and I told her I wasn't going to stop her because I wasn't her father and let her leave. About five minutes later I dragged her ass back into the mansion and grounded her for a week for being about to do something stupid for a boy."

"I bet that went over well." Remy smirked.

"She didn't speak to me for a month."

"What did you do?" Sarah asked.

Logan sighed again. The sigh of man who was thankful of a healing factor.

"I let her beat the shit outta me."

Remy groaned and fell backwards onto the bed.

"It's alright, Cajun." Logan grinned again. "Like I said, I got a plan."

-

_Elle me déteste! Je ne vais jamais à être en mesure de faire de ce droit!" - _She hates me! I will never be able to make this right!


	33. Chapter 33

_And in the thirty-third chapter, the people said 'Let there be more Johnny'_

_And Jamie said 'Make it so'._

_-_

Rogue flexed her fingers experimentally over the white gauze that wrapped around her knuckles as she made her way to the bathroom.

_Alright, no peaking. _She thought as she turned on the water to the shower, and then added a very pointed: _John. _

_What? _John spluttered with mock indignation. _Me? Would I try to do something like that? _

_Yes. _Rogue grinned as she stripped off her shirt.

At least she could still be friends with the people in her head, as wrong as that sounded. Everyone else in her life plastered on smiles and lied through their teeth. The voices had no smiles. The voices couldn't tell lies. And yet, they all moved her, wooed her into different states of mind.

When she was passionate, she was a Logan.

When she was thinking, she was an Erik.

When she was gentle, she was a Piotr.

When she was relentless, she was a Bobby.

When she was blunt, she was a John.

The people in her head _made _Rogue. Without them she was Marie.

And she hated Marie.

_I was thinking, _She announced in her head as the heat of the water beat down against her back.

_About what, my dear? _Erik inquired.

_I was thinking Boston. _She said curtly.

_Boston… for what? _Bobby hesitated.

_Well, _Rogue sighed. _I can't stay here any more. I don't want their smiles. I don't want their lies. _

_What is it they are going to do without you? _Piotr demanded.

_Whatever it was they were doing before. _Rogue guessed bitterly.

_You're being stupid, kid. _Logan growled. _You remember what happened last time you felt like you needed to stop dealing with the way people treated you around here. _

"That's not the same!" She shouted out loud, slamming her fist into the wall, knuckles shrilling with pain as the scabs tore open, streaming blood that was quickly swept away by the currents of water spilling down her body. "I can handle being insulted now." She swore. "I can handle being kicked down! I can handle being bleeding and broken!" Every word rang true. "But, like hell am I going to stay here and be treated like a China doll for everyone to tiptoe around with cut-out smiles and damn lies! I'm not going to wait around for _him _to wake up and start groveling! I'm not gonna sit here and take this! I'm done with that!"

_Rogue, _John's voice was cool and measured. _Take three deep breaths._

She breathed in and out slowly three times.

_Turn down the temperature. _He continued.

She turned the knob down from 'scalding' to 'warm'.

_Put your hand under the water. _He commanded gently.

She clenched her fist under the stream of hot water, washing away the blood.

_Now, say 'John is a sexy beast'._

"John is a sexy-," She started. "Waaaaaait a second." Rogue suspected somewhere along the line she had been tricked.

_Dammit. _John pouted. _I thought for sure that would work. _

She giggled.

Rogue felt a tenseness that had been coiling inside of her for two days release slightly.

_Despite what you think, Rogue. _John sighed. _You can't just survive on the people in your head. I haven't seen you smile for a year. Longer, if you wanna get technical about the entire 'I don't have eyes' thing. But since you came back I've heard you laugh. And cry. And sing. There's nothing for you anywhere else that's going to make you _feel. _You'll just be numb again out in the world. _

Rogue sat down in the shower, pulling her knees up to her chest so that she could rest her chin on them.

_But what about _him_? _She wondered. _I can't deal with him. _

_Puh-lease, girl. _John gave her a sassy tone that made her giggle again. _Who do you think is the one making you feel all of this? _

_No. _She shut down on him. _I refuse to believe that boy has brought me anything but pain. _

_But- _John started.

_Everything he said to me, from the beginning, was a lie. _

_But- _John tried again.

_AND, the only reason he told me anything was so that he could save his own ass. _

_But- _

"End of discussion." Rogue growled, coil growing even tighter than it had been before in her chest, anger flaring, brooding mood set.

_But-!_

Whatever John was about to try and pull on her next was cut off by a sharp knock on the door of her room.

"One moment!" She called out, shutting off the water in the shower and grabbing a towel to wrap around herself as she attempted to distract herself by answering the door. Maybe Jubilee or Betsy was trying to get her outside again. Or maybe Logan wanted to have another 'heart-to-heart'. Or maybe Bobby was going to try and win her back again. A good 'go to hell' was just what she needed to perk up her day.

Whatever she had been expecting when she opened the door, it wasn't what she found.

"Hi!" The little girl with pink hair and plates of bones extending out of her skin grinned.

"Uh- hello…" Rogue was absolutely positive she had never seen this child before in her life.

"Wow," The girl looked up at her as she invited herself into Rogue's room, walking in a circle around her. "You're pretty!"

"Er… Thank you…" She didn't feel especially pretty, covered in only a towel and streaked with blood here and there.

The girl plopped herself down on Rogue's bed and looked around expectantly.

"I'm sorry-," Rogue started.

"Sarah." The girl filled in the blank.

"Sarah," Rogue nodded. "But, is there something I can help you with?"

"Mmm-hmm." Sarah nodded brightly, getting up from her spot on the bed to wander over to the closet, sifting through the contents. "Mr. Logan sent me to come get you." She started picking some things off of hangers. "He says it's a mandatory meeting. Meet him in the Danger Room."

"Well, you can tell Mr. Wolverine that he can take that mandatory meeting and shove it up his-."

"He also said that there was no cursing around the younger students." Sarah added over her shoulder, now rooting through drawers. "And, that you have no choice."

Rogue growled in her throat.

It was at this point that she realized this tornado of a child had gone through every article of clothing in her room and was laying out an outfit on top of her bed.

"I think you should wear this." Sarah commented. "You'd look pretty in it." She look up with a smile that held so much innocence it was completely impossible for her not to be up to something.

"Hmm." Rogue's lips quirked as she observed the girl. "What are you up to?"

"Up to?" Sarah made a face of mock affront. "Me? I would never!" She shot Rogue a grin that reminded her of herself as she sprinted towards the door. "You have ten minutes!" She crowed, snapping the door shut as she took flight.

Rogue cocked an eyebrow at the door, amused by the little girl.

"Cute kid." She mumbled to herself as she looked over the outfit left sprawled out on her bed. Her eyebrow went up further.

-

Twenty minutes later Rogue swaggered into the danger room wearing a pair of black jeans that seemed to enjoy her curves as much as the owner of every jaw that had dropped on her way down the halls, clinging especially well around the hips. Her pale green blouse grazed the edge of the pants, leaving the smallest sliver of taut tummy exposed. The neck line swooped dangerously low. 'Dangerously' being a deliciously appropriate description of all of the skin exposed. A pair of thin black leather gloves clung to her fingers and a pair of bulky black shit-stomping boots clunked the ground every time she took a step.

The bug eyed expressions on every X-man in the room made the initial discomfort of being so exposed worth every second before the plastered on their smiles, which made her shoot glares that could turn men to stone at them.

"Right," Logan coughed from his spot in front of the others, calling the full attention of Rogue's glare as the man who had pulled her out of her shower for a lame mandatory meeting. "Now that Rogue has decided to grace us with her presence, let's get started shall we?"

A mischievous grin that matched what had been Sarah's crossed his face.

"I'm getting concerned about the lack of one-on-one combat ability." He continued on as if everything were normal. "What do you do when your attacker has singled out you as their one and only outlet for aggression?"

Warren raised his hand.

"That was a rhetorical question." Logan scrubbed at his brow.

Warren put his hand down.

"Maybe they need a demonstration!" Sarah popped out of nowhere.

"Why, that sounds like a marvelous idea, darlin'!" Logan grinned. "Rogue," He pointed her out. "Come 'ere."

Wrinkling her brow with displeasure, Rogue stepped forward, chip on her shoulder weighing her down.

"What's going on?" She growled.

"You're just gonna demonstrate what a good and vicious one-on-one fight would look like." Logan's grinning continued.

"Oh yeah?" She snipped, crossing her arms over her chest. "And who exactly am I gonna give a thrashing? You?" She laughed. "Please. Ain't nobody's as good at one-on-one as me." She boasted.

"If I were so bold as t' volunteer my services for this particular endeavor," Dread filled the pit in her stomach as the masculine voice came across her ears. Dread and pure, unadulterated fury. Her shoulders cringed and her eyes narrowed as she turned around slowly to meet his red on black eyes. "_Chere." Remy finished with a smirk. _

"Boy," She growled, automatically setting her stance - not because Logan had told her to, -but simply because she wanted to kick the ever living shit out of him. "Yah're dead lucky that there's a med lab down the hall from here." She growled in her honey-thick accent.

Remy cringed, all of his aches and pains groaning in protest as he willingly walked forward into another beating.


	34. Chapter 34

_My fingers are crying. So, so sad typing this up. IT'S ENDING! WAAAH! *sniff*_

_-_

Remy felt like a lemming.

That was the only way he could think to describe it.

One moment, everything was fine and dandy- He had an itch, he scratched it. He was thirsty, he drank. He was hungry, he ate. But, over some course of time, he was assuming it was sometime since his red eyes met her green ones, all of those natural instincts had started to desert him. He had an itch, would it hurt her if he scratched it? He was thirsty, had she already had enough to drink? He was hungry, had to make sure she had had her fill first.

And in the end, it had backfired and he ended up making her absolutely livid with him.

And then a bigger, more experienced lemming said- 'You know what'd be a great idea? If you jumped off a cliff!'.

And here he was.

Standing in front of her as she fumed.

Ready to just leap off the damn cliff in the hopes she'd let him lounge in the waters below with her instead of drowning.

He seriously doubted the logic behind this 'plan'.

"Alright, everybody to the booth!" Wolverine called out quickly, seeing that Rogue was very rapidly losing a battle with her restraint. "You're gonna want to take notes on this one." He commented as he shooed out a protesting Storm.

"She's going to kill him!" Ororo pointed out shrilly.

"Not kill ." Logan tutted. "Maim, maybe, but not kill."

"But!" She started again before she was pushed out of the door, sealing Remy inside with a very pissed off Rogue.

A grim smile stretched across Rogue's lips as her eyes fell into shadow.

Remy set his shoulders, wincing as pain shot through his arm and across his chest.

Well, here went everything. He was going to jump off that damn cliff and hit every rock on the way down.

The metal of the Danger Room distorted into a empty warehouse as someone up in the control booth gave him something to work with other than the deck of cards and bo. Neither of which he was planning to use.

Remy heaved one last sigh as he turned to the girl.

"Rogue," He started to try and talk to her.

Apparently, however, the change in the Danger Room signified a little red flag that had 'GO!' written across it in bold letters.

Rogue sprang forward, hands contacting the floor as she vaulted herself back up, heels connecting with Remy's jaw, cutting off his sentence. She twisted and landed in a crouch as he hit the floor.

"Rogue," He coughed, trying again.

"Get up!" She snarled, hands coming down on the back of his jacket, dragging him upright. "Fight me!"

"I ain't gonna fight you!" He snapped.

Her fist pummeled into his good side.

"Fight me!" She demanded again.

"_Non!_"

She crouched down, kicking his feet out from underneath of him. The wind was knocked out of him as he hit the floor, leaving a dull ache throughout his ribs.

"_Fight me!" _She screamed a third, and no doubt a final, time.

"_Make me." _He growled back.

"Fine." She smirked darkly as she flew into an axis kick aimed for his neck.

"_Merde!" _His hand shot out and caught her ankle, stopping it's descent to his throat as he shot into an upright position, forcing her to pivot on her heel to accommodate the height her foot was forced to. "You better start playin' nice, _chere," _He said seriously, keeping a firm grip on her ankle as she jerked.

She pouted. Her full lips pressed together into a cute frown that distracted Remy, making his grip go momentarily slack. "Or what?" She mewled, batting her eyelashes. "Are you gonna punish me if I don't behave?"

"_Q-quoi?" _He stuttered. Hell, he didn't even know how he stuttered on a 'Q', but this woman was making him all sorts of confused.

She cackled an evil laugh as she spun out of his grip into another kick that struck just below his stomach.

He grunted and stumbled backwards.

"You fight dirty, _chere." _He groaned.

"Don't call me 'chere'." She growled, launching forward with her shoulder right into the same spot she had just planted her heel, wrenching forward his good arm and flipping him down to the ground. "Manipulative bastard." She ground out as an after thought.

That was the point Remy stopped playing the fool.

He planted one hand firmly on the ground, pushing himself upwards as he spun out his legs, aiming to knock her down.

Rogue leapt forward over him, avoiding his trick.

He twisted his body in the air, planting his feet the same moment Rogue did.

"Now we're getting somewhere." She grinned with malice.

"I don't want to hurt you, _chere." _He breathed honestly.

"A little late for that one, now aren't we, swamp rat?" Her eyes narrowed.

Well, he walked right into that one, didn't he?

As he was busy wincing, it seemed Rogue was completely done playing games.

She charged forward, fist cocked back.

Remy caught the fist before it struck his cheek, stepping forward into her body and elbowing her harshly in the ribs in an attempt to pacify her.

She locked her heel into the back of his knee and pulled forward, sending him careening off balance. At the last second, he twisted, taking her with him in his ascent to the floor, which he quickly used to his advantage as he struck the ground first, flexing his back so they flipped again and he landed straddling her stomach.

"Now, that's better." He nodded with a grin, pinning down her wrists.

Her eyes seethed green fire.

"Sonofa-!" She hissed, bucking her hips forward so that she could wrap her legs around his stomach, yanking him off of her.

"Ow, _chere." _He whined, rubbing his head when he hit the ground.

"_Don't call me chere!" _She shrilled, fist actually striking his face this time.

"Oof!" He fell to the floor, head dizzy, nose bleeding.

"You're holding back!" She accused.

"I don't want to hurt you." He repeated, announcing each syllable clearly.

"Then you should have told me the truth!" Rogue screamed, launching forward again.

"I wanted to!" He tried to explain, but it was so, so hard when he was avoiding fists and boots that looked like they could crush his skull.

"Then why didn't you?" She demanded, taking a step forward into a round house kick.

"I was afraid you were gonna get to riled up about it!" He admitted, taking another blow.

"Sure," She sneered. He deflected an elbow rocketing towards his intestines.

"Honest!" He tried again, twisting her wrist. "They said y'r powers were acting up and I didn't want to drive you into any sort of frenzy."

"Until you did it intentionally to save your own ass." She twisted out of his grip again, kicking out backwards as he leapt into the air.

"You think I did that to save my own ass?" He questioned incredulously, eyebrows shooting upwards with disbelief.

"It wasn't like you were giving a good god damn about me." She snapped, crouching down to the ground, panting slightly.

"I wasn't even sure I was gonna make it out of there alive!" He shouted. "The only way to make sure _you _were going to be okay was to piss you off like none-other!"

"Which is where you manipulated my emotions." She pointed out with lips contorted with malice. She sprang up out of her crouch, but he kept her back.

"You were being to damn understanding!" Remy accused. "It was the only way I was gonna get you good and mad! In case you didn't notice your _soul _was on the line!"

"That's because people like me are _supposed _to be understanding in situations like that!" She screeched.

"Situations like what?" He demanded. "We were being _held hostage! _What sort of stupid thing was running through your head that you thought you had to be understanding with me?"

She blushed, actions momentarily stopping as she ground the toe of her boot into the floor.

"Don't matter." She mumbled. "It ain't like it meant anything."

He paused. "Like what meant anything…?"

"The stupid thought that was running through my head." Rogue stared down at her toes, receding from the fire passion she had shown a few moments ago back into withdrawal. "Didn't mean anything."

"_Chere," _He went to reach out for her, but then though better of it as a new bruise yelped in pain and her eyes flashed. "Talk to me." He coaxed. "Help me understand."

"Or what?" She snipped half-heartedly.

"Or…" He thought about a plausible excuse. "I won't go t' the med lab after y'r through beatin' me." He stuck his thumbs in his belt loops and dared her to try and call his not-a-bluff.

"I don't care." She crossed her arms over her chest and avoided eye contact with him.

"Oh, really?" He grinned. "Then riddle me this- Why is it you saw fit t' hit me everywhere 'cept where I was hurtin'?" Every strike she had laid out against him had avoided his shoulder and chest. "Seems to me if you really didn't care 'bout me you woulda gone for those spots first."

The red hue of her cheeks deepened.

"Doesn't mean anything, swamp rat." She swore, still not making eye contact with him. "So what, I don't want to make you bleed, you still lied to me _from the beginning." _

"Technically, I only lied to you about twenty minutes into the beginning, when you asked me about my powers." He pointed out glibly.

Rogue struck out at him again with her fist, striking the wall as he rolled out of the way of the bone-crushing hit.

"_Sonovabitch!_" She shrieked in pain, pulling her hand into her chest.

It was only at this point Remy noticed the river of blood running out of her gloves and across her wrists.

"_Merde!" _He cursed, snatching her hand deftly before she could protest and stripping off her glove. Her normally delicate hands were red with blood that spilled out of her slashed knuckles. "What the hell have you been doing to yourself?" He demanded.

"Let go!" She pulled against his gloved grip. "I'll deal with it."

"Is this what you call dealing with it?" He snapped, temper starting to slip out of his grasp. "You didn't get this checked out? It looks infected!"

"Like you care!" She snapped right back, waiting for him to fall into the same trap Logan had earlier.

"I care more about you than I care about myself!" He shouted. Any restrain the had had on his temper broke. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, dammit!"

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted slightly, but it seemed words had deserted her.

"God forbid you listened to anything that's good for you!" He continued to rave. " And God _forbid _you let anyone get close enough to you to force you to stick around, huh? _Bon Dieu, ma fille! _There are times to be headstrong and there are times to admit you're wrong! And I ain't wrong this time! I'm tired of thinking I am. Mistakes are mistakes. Grow. Learn. Live! I made a mistake. Hell! I've made so many mistakes there should be a short summary of my life under it in the dictionary." He took a deep breath. "I forgave myself 'cause _you _made me. You have been my saving grace, _chere. _And if I ain't yours, that's the way it is. I'll say my goodbyes and walk out that door as soon as _you _forgive me for my mistakes too. 'Cause I care about you more than I care about myself. And that's the truth."

Rogue reeled from all of the new information her head was trying to process. The sudden need to sit down struck her and she woozily put half of her weight against the wall.

She mumbled something.

"What was that?" Remy leaned forward, trying to catch her words.

She mumbled again, only slightly louder.

"I can't-." He started to say.

"I love you." She said, mostly to her chest. "Thought I did. Then I thought I didn't. Now I know I do." And then added an embarrassed and meek: "Sorry."

"Sorry?" Remy wrinkled his nose. "In case I haven't made myself abundantly clear, _chere, _I love you too."

Rogue smiled, blushing a even deeper shade of red.

"Let's start over, shall we?" Remy suggested, taking her hand and laying a short bare kiss on her skin. "My name's Gambit. Thief. You can call me Remy."

Rogue leaned forward and planted a short bare kiss on his lips. "My name's Marie. Leech. You can call me Rogue."

And for the first time in a long time, neither one of them were bothered by the voices in their heads.

_-Fin.- _

_-_

_I'm such a sucker for adorable endings. It's my kryptonite. :D I don't think I can write an ending that isn't obnoxiously sweet. ...Sorry!... :D _

_I love you guys so much! Thanks for reading my (sappy) (and long as hell) story!_

_Oh, and before I forget- I do not own the X-men. (:C) I do, however, own this story. (It's better than nothing) But am making no money off of it. (Which again causes me to wonder why I do it in the first place...:D) _

_Annnnd now it's nap time. _


	35. Epilogue ?

_SUDDEN ENDING: …Wait? Was that it?_

_JAMIE: Uh… Yeah…_

_SUDDEN ENDING: NO! I DEMAND AN EPILOGUE! _

_JAMIE: But, I can't write epilogues! I have no idea how I would-_

_SUDDEN ENDING: EPILOGUE. NOW. _

_-_

Rogue nuzzled and cuddled her way under Remy's arm on the couch, in her opinion the best seat in the house.

"You're lucky you're cute, _chere." _Remy grinned down at her, pulling her closer against himself.

"Well, one of us had to be." She smirked.

"While the other had to be sexy." He informed her with a knowing nod.

"I'm assuming you're referring to yourself there?" Rogue scoffed.

"Of course." Remy smirked. "It takes a lot of work to be as hot as I am."

"And who told you that you were hot?" Rogue inquired.

"Several people." He said indignantly. "Yourself included."

"And when exactly did I say that?" She demanded.

"Ahem:" Remy cleared his throat and then spoke with an amusingly distorted interpretation of Rogue's voice. "Golly, Remy! Yah're so sexy! Yah know what we should do tahnight? Ah was thinking chocolate syrup and-."

"I never said that!" Rogue protested

"But you would have." Remy assured her.

"Under what circumstances on this planet would I have said that?"

"Alright- picture this-."

"Oh, Lord."

"You're wandering around the house late at night, oh so lonely without your Remy-."

"Of course."

"And, goodness it's hot outside-."

"I must be wearing something skimpy then, huh, if it's so _hot."_

"Better than skimpy." Remy grinned. "Downright _revealing." _

"Oh goody!" Rogue giggled. "I should probably eat some ice cream too. With cherries and syrup. All _melty._ You know how stuff like that could get pretty messy."

"You know how much I like messy things." Remy grinned suggestively.

"Oh my god, you guys!" Warren gagged and scooted his chair farther away from the couch.

"My little ears!" Bobby cried out.

"Some of us are trying to watch movie!" Piotr pointed to the screen from the floor.

"I don't get it. What else get's messy?" Sarah wondered out loud from her spot on Remy's lap.

"It better be nothing." Logan growled from Rogue's other side.

"Remy," Ororo rubbed her eyes. "Stop corrupting the children."

"What's 'corupt'd'?" Jamie asked loudly, munching on some popcorn.

"It means that they make you no good." Rahne supplied.

"Oh…" Jamie wrinkled his nose. "Mr. Gambit wouldn't do that.!" He declared.

Rogue and Remy burst into laughter in the middle of their cut-and-paste family.

-

_JAMIE: B-better?_

_SUDDEN ENDING: I am sated. … FOR NOW…_

_*DUH DUH DUUUUH* _


End file.
